Poor WiFi and the unusual horn malfunction during Iowa men's basketball's South Regional final should leave the NCAA questioning their decision to host the game at the Toyota Center.
Let's get one thing straight.
Houston (and the state of Texas as a whole) is fantastic. The weather is a perfect escape from the unpredictable Iowa spring, and the overall vibe of the city is positive. The people are friendly and bring that Southern hospitality, and their barbecue (shoutout Pinkerton's near downtown) is so good that it's almost worth making another 15 hour drive to get it.
But when it comes to hosting NCAA tournament basketball games, the city missed the mark. For those that think this column is smearing the media hospitality - it's not. The media setup was perfect, and everyone behind the scenes did an incredible job making sure it remained that way.
But there were two instances during Iowa men's basketball's historic South Regional berth that probably leave the NCAA at a crossroads. You're probably thinking of the obvious one (we'll get to it in a second), but the most disappointing part of covering this tournament was the poor WiFi. Any journalist knows this, but to bring the best coverage of a game, you need quality internet to check stats and write your story.
The internet did work, but it was so inconsistent. I had to use my hotspot for a portion of the game, which isn't the most reliable thing to use when you're in an arena filled with over 17,000 fans. Employees were trying to figure out the issue throughout the first half, but I don't think their search yielded a way to fix the problem. Once the game ended, I had to race to the tunnel to post my story because the internet had simply stalled out.
Poor WiFi is obviously a problem for the media, but the biggest concern in my eyes is for the fans. It rarely happens, but we've seen kids get separated from their parents at arenas. What if that problem occurred in Houston with poor Internet? Someone could've been in danger. The same goes for a medical emergency.
That leads into the obvious problem - the horn debacle. I've never seen or will see anything like this during a game, but immediately after the under-eight media timeout during the Iowa-Illinois Elite Eight showdown on March 28, the horn sounded to bring the players back to the floor and didn't stop. The delay lasted over 11 minutes of real time before the decision was made to unplug it and switch to a manually-operated air horn instead of the traditional buzzer.
The air horn gave the contest a unique 1980s feel, but the NCAA clearly wasn't pleased with it. There were a group of men in black-cladded suits huddling near the scorer's table during halftime, but again, the problem wasn't fixed and resulted in most of the game to be played without a video board - a major inconvenience for fans that spent a lot of money to be in the arena that night.
Very rarely does Houston actually have a problem, but on this night, there were problems all over the place.
The NCAA might not give Houston another NCAA tournament game for a long time.
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