WATCH: Confetti prematurely falls from rafters in A-10 Tournament Championship Game mishap
Most conferences don’t drop confetti until after the championship games. However, the Atlantic-10 innovated and dropped the confetti during the second half of the A-10 championship game between Duquesne and VCU while the game was underway.
Obviously, this was a mistake and both Duquesne and VCU would have preferred to not have their game interfered with, especially since it led to a delay in the game while the court was cleaned up from the mishap.
You can watch confetti come down in the middle of the A-10 Championship Game, here:
At the time that the confetti fell from the rafters at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, there were still 18 minutes to go in the second half of the A-10 Championship Game. For the most part, the confetti was confined to the stands. However, some of it did clearly get on the court.
Watching the players react to the confetti falling from the rafters is pretty incredible too. At first, they play on despite the distraction but it’s not long before their focus drifts to what’s going on around them and play had to be stopped.
Kevin Harlan was on the call for CBS Sports and it’s hard to imagine a better choice for a broadcaster to handle this kind of moment.
“My goodness. Oh my gosh, they’ve got confetti falling right now,” Harlan said. “Confetti is falling on the floor. They’re gonna have to stop play. We can’t see our notes. The players can’t work on this court. Confetti is everywhere! Somebody hit the wrong button!”
Duquesne was leading the game 38-23 at that point. However, the premature celebration easily could have been seen as a jinx that nobody on that side wanted to see. After all, there is a bid in the NCAA Tournament on the line. Neither of these teams is likely to make it without winning the A-10 Tournament first.
In ESPN’s latest bracketology, released on Selection Sunday before the final few title games tipped off, the A-10 was listed as a two-bid league. That included the winner of the tournament title game as well as Dayton. If that’s how things work out, it would be the first time as a multi-bid league since 2022.
For their part, Duquesne and VCU played late in the regular season with Duquesne winning that game. They entered the A-10 Tournament as the fifth and sixth seeds, respectively. Hopefully, for whatever team ends up winning, there will be some leftover confetti ready to fall down from the ceiling.