The ESPN+ graphics team briefly got its wires crossed during Sunday night’s broadcast of the men’s basketball game between Mississippi Valley State and LSU.
Early in the game, Mississippi Valley State’s X (formerly Twitter) team account noted that the ESPN+ graphic showed that the game was between LSU and Albany. Naturally, that sparked some curiosity.
“Hey @espn what the hell? That’s not us,” the account posted.
Hey @espn what the hell? That’s not us! pic.twitter.com/gVDCHHcEUj
— Delta Devils Men’s Basketball (@MVSUMBB) December 30, 2024
There are actually two incorrect details in that graphic.
One, as the Delta Devils pointed out, was LSU’s opponent. The second is that the clock shows 19:11 remaining in the first quarter. College basketball plays two 20-minute halves. Or, more accurately, men’s college basketball plays two 20-minute halves. Women’s college basketball plays four 10-minute quarters — which brings us to the most likely cause of the mistake.
Earlier in the day, LSU’s women’s team had a home game. That game, as you have probably figured out, was against Albany. While the scorebug did change the clock to show 20 minutes instead of 10, it didn’t change “quarter” to “half,” or “Albany” to “Mississippi Valley State,” at least not at first.
It didn’t take too long for the scorebug to fix both problems.
Fortunately, the mistake was fixed.
Still, oops. https://t.co/tJELtUMHX4 pic.twitter.com/hgZOXmv1Kc
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 30, 2024
[Delta Devils Men’s Basketball on X, Photo Credit: ESPN+]