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Fans saw an odd sight ahead of a recent college basketball matchup between the Maine Black Bears and the Vermont Catamounts. The game had to be delayed due to a crooked court.
Staff was then forced to reassemble the floor, pulling the boards apart and piecing it back together like a puzzle. Fans online were quick to react to seeing the real-life game of Tetris.
Maine hosted the first-place Catamounts, who entered the matchup at 7-2 in American East conference play. The Black Bears hoped to pull the upset and land their fifth league win of the year.
A pregame hiccup forced both sides to postpone their preparations for the contest.
Photos of a crooked court baseline began surfacing on social media, causing quite a stir from viewers.
This sure is a new one. The Vermont/Maine game is in a delay to fix the court. As you can see the baseline is quite crooked. No start time as of now pic.twitter.com/0pfrRpHjzx
— Brian McLaughlin (@bp3mclaughlin) February 8, 2023
“Someone really looked at this and said, ‘Yeah, that’ll do,'” one fan wrote in response to the photos. That was a common reply in the comments section.
I mean it is a bit… puzzling to wonder how this wasn’t a concern until just before the opening tip. The Maine athletic staff was quickly forced to disassemble the floorboard and fit it back together.
Here is what was shown on the broadcast of the court reassembly delay in the Maine vs Vermont game lol pic.twitter.com/trc1H8khAb
— PSC Highlights (@psc_highlights) February 9, 2023
Those videos garnered more online response from fans.
One person commented, “Someone wasn’t very good at Tetris.”
Another said, “Every single part of this stresses me out.”
This fan wrote, “Things you really only see at the mid-major level. What a beautiful sport.”
The once crooked court was eventually pieced back together, allowing teams to finally take the floor. Vermont was able to land a win following the facilities mishap, taking the Black Bears down by a score of 74-65. They never trailed in the game.
The win tightened their stronghold on the American East conference as they improved to 8-2 in league play. Maine fell to 4-7 in the conference as championship hopes continue to fade.