Utah Valley - New Mexico State fight

[SixFig]

Time for a reflection session!

And for old guys / sportswriters to moan about storming the court, although clearly the court storm didn't have anything to do with the fight


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2al0WUXpCXg#t=33

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/24459913/video-court-storm-leads-to-tussle-between-players-and-fans

[Masterofreality]

Can't wait for the ESPN and general media outrage about those "gangstas" in Utah and New Mexico.

[bleedXblue]

Can't wait for the ESPN and general media outrage about those "gangstas" in Utah and New Mexico.

Well, did they say they were gangstas.....?

[bleedXblue]

The kid from New Mexico who hurled the ball at the Utah player should be suspended for the rest of the season. What an a-hole.

[SlimKibbles]

The kid from New Mexico who hurled the ball at the Utah player should be suspended for the rest of the season. What an a-hole.

You mean like Nancy Gates was suspended for the rest of the season? Oh wait...

[GoMuskies]

It was Utah Valley and not Utah State. Lest anyone worry about Utah State's reputation.

[Milhouse]

This all just proves that the fight wasn't that big of a deal.

The press conference was.

[xubrew]

I watched most of this game, but when Utah Valley went up 7 in overtime, I turned it off thinking it was over.

I miss everything!!!

[mistabeecee41]

"Well, Sim Bhullar was a one time X-commit, so it must be Xavier's fault somehow." -UC fans everywhere.

[bleedXblue]

This all just proves that the fight wasn't that big of a deal.

The press conference was.

Exactly my point with MOR.

[DoubleD86]

Time for a reflection session!

And for old guys / sportswriters to moan about storming the court, although clearly the court storm didn't have anything to do with the fight


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2al0WUXpCXg#t=33

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/24459913/video-court-storm-leads-to-tussle-between-players-and-fans

I don't really get in on the storm the court "debate" but this is one of the few legitimate worries with storming the court. Yes, the storming the court had little to do with what started the fight, but the actual fight happened between students and players who weren't involved in the throwing of the ball. One of the issues with these stormings is that you have a lot of stupid, often drunk, students on the court and in the face of players who just spent two hours giving their best effort to win a game.

While you expect nothing to happen, I am actually surprised more things don't start with idiots saying or touching a player in an uncontrollable atmosphere.

That being said, I have no real issue with court stormings, I just see this as one legitimate argument against them.

[Milhouse]

Exactly my point with MOR.

yeah people on this board don't want to hear it but that was the only issue with the fight.

That doesn't happen and there isn't a big fallout. There will be plenty of fights/brawls in the future in CBB. But every single coach in america whether they be 75 or 15 at the time will never put a kid in front of a microphone immediately after again.

[Xman95]

yeah people on this board don't want to hear it but that was the only issue with the fight.

That doesn't happen and there isn't a big fallout. There will be plenty of fights/brawls in the future in CBB. But every single coach in america whether they be 75 or 15 at the time will never put a kid in front of a microphone immediately after again.

Which is part of the reason the fallout was so stupid. Because of something a couple players said, something that didn't even attack the team they had the fight with, Xavier had its reputation dragged through the mud. All because Tu Holloway called his own team - his OWN team - a bunch of gangstas. And, it should be pointed out, that he immediately tried to clarify what he meant. Not thugs, but tough guys on the court. That was a giant media creation that should have been nothing more than "hey, a couple of bitter rivals got into fight and were a little heated after the game."

[LA Muskie]

yeah people on this board don't want to hear it but that was the only issue with the fight.

That doesn't happen and there isn't a big fallout. There will be plenty of fights/brawls in the future in CBB. But every single coach in america whether they be 75 or 15 at the time will never put a kid in front of a microphone immediately after again.

I won't say it was the only issue but it was the biggest. I also think the fact that we are a Jesuit/Catholic school tended to differentiate us from a lot of the other situations. It was more shocking because we were involved.

[xubrew]

Being ranked #8th didn't help either. The spotlight was a lot brighter on the XU v UC game than it was on this one. The media missed this, but that same year two NEC teams got into a bench clearing and stands clearing brawl after a double overtime game.

These were the two top teams in the WAC, but because the tournament is a standard bracket that's played at a predetermined site, the winner doesn't get home court advantage, or a double bye, or anything like that. The game wasn't really THAT important as far as making the NCAA Tournament because neither team is anywhere close to good enough to get in without the auto bid. The issue now is whether or not they're going to have all their contributing palyers going into the conference tournament.

New Mexico State isn't good, but they are at least decent. They won at New Mexico earlier this year, and if all the pieces fell into place, it wouldn't be the biggest surprise in the world to see them pull off an upset in the round of 64.

Utah Valley was a transitional team recently, and they were in the Great West up until this year. They were the best program in that league and finished first several times, but because the league didn't have an auto-bid, they never got to play in the NCAA Tournament. This is their first year in a league that has a bid, and they're at the top of the standings.

I'm not going to compare it to the XU v UC fight because the way that played out in the media was damaging. This won't be played out in the media at all, but it does suck that two good teams (by WAC standards) will likely not have some of their best players in the conference tournament, which are the games that matter, because they got into a fight in a game that really didn't matter. As much as the Crosstown Brawl sucked, at least it didn't ruin either team's best chance of making the NCAA Tournament.

[Masterofreality]

This all just proves that the fight wasn't that big of a deal.

The press conference was.


Exactly my point with MOR.

The brawl press conference was an over the top, borderline racist, overreaction by the media in faux outrage.

What the hell was worse, what Tu said or this after the Ohio St./Michigan football game brawl?
1391

What Marcus Hall did died down quickly. Xavier's brawl reference went on for a year.

[OH.X.MI]

The brawl press conference was an over the top, borderline racist, overreaction by the media in faux outrage.

What the hell was worse, what Tu said or this after the Ohio St./Michigan football game brawl?
1391

What Marcus Hall did died down quickly. Xavier's brawl reference went on for a year.

Yup. If you ask me, ESPN makes an absolute ton of money off OSU and UofM, they aren't going to make their cash cows look bad. But when it comes to two relatively small schools in south west Ohio, its open shooting for the media. Also, sports media's obsession with the "culture" of athletes, whatever the hell that means, was another reason they were able to scrutinize our incident so much. With this Utah Vally / New Mexico State incident, fans were involved... the media also is not going to make their viewers look bad. It's all about the money.

[xubrew]

Ohio State v Michigan was one of the last games of the year. Football was over. The Crosstown Brawl happened in December, which meant every time we played after that there was an opportunity to mention it.

I think the incident with Marcus Smart got as much attention as the Brawl did. Probably more. Maybe it didn't get more in Cincinnati, but nation wide it did.

The Lagarrette Blount incident against Boise State got a ton of play, and that was probably less severe than either the brawl or Marcus Smart.

The same year as the brawl, there was a much bigger brawl in an NEC game at the very end that involved both the benches and the stands clearing, and that wasn't even mentioned in the main stream media.

ESPN was all over the Jim Tressel incident. They didn't mind making Ohio State look bad then. When you handle something that explosive as stupidly as Xavier did, the media is going to talk about how stupid you are. That's not an agenda to make some schools look bad and others look good. That's just the way it is.

[BlueGuy]

It was Utah Valley and not Utah State. Lest anyone worry about Utah State's reputation.

I am a fairly big college hoops fan. I didn't know there was a D-1 school called Utah Valley State University.


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[DC Muskie]

It didn't help that the game was at noon and blood was drawn. The press conference was just another opportunity for white people to flip out.

[gladdenguy]

Did we ever come to a conclusion who let Tu and Lyons speak at that presser?

I actually don't care who made the moronic decision. But it was under the leadership of Mike Sham....just like the Dez bullcrap.
The leader "Sham" should be at fault. Xavier really made themselves look like ass clowns. Love ya MOR but using ESPN as a scapegoat is the biggest cop out I've ever heard. And Brew is spot on........Xavier was ranked 8th and the game was early in the season. Still plenty of time to talk about it.

Lets not get confused though. ESPN is not at fault. Xavier's idiocy under one Mike Sham is to blame.

[GoMuskies]

I think there were a number of people to blame. It was just a bad deal all around. Thank God it's over and we don't have to re-hash that situation after EVERY. SINGLE. FIGHT. that happens in any sport ever.

Oh, wait.

[xu82]

I think there were a number of people to blame. It was just a bad deal all around. Thank God it's over and we don't have to re-hash that situation after EVERY. SINGLE. FIGHT. that happens in any sport ever.

Oh, wait.

But the day will come.... hopefully in our children's lifetimes...

[LadyMuskie]

Did we ever come to a conclusion who let Tu and Lyons speak at that presser?

I actually don't care who made the moronic decision. But it was under the leadership of Mike Sham....just like the Dez bullcrap.
The leader "Sham" should be at fault. Xavier really made themselves look like ass clowns. Love ya MOR but using ESPN as a scapegoat is the biggest cop out I've ever heard. And Brew is spot on........Xavier was ranked 8th and the game was early in the season. Still plenty of time to talk about it.

Lets not get confused though. ESPN is not at fault. Xavier's idiocy under one Mike Sham is to blame.

Bobinski said more than once that he was to blame for Tu and Mark going before the press. But, my understanding is that it wasn't him directly that allowed it to happen, but rather one of our so-called PR people, who, as far as I know, is still employed by the University. That is the sham! Two of our best players took the fall for an employee of the university making a massive, unforgivable, job-ending-in-most-situations mistake.

[Nigel Tufnel]

Did we ever come to a conclusion who let Tu and Lyons speak at that presser?

I actually don't care who made the moronic decision. But it was under the leadership of Mike Sham....just like the Dez bullcrap.
The leader "Sham" should be at fault. Xavier really made themselves look like ass clowns. Love ya MOR but using ESPN as a scapegoat is the biggest cop out I've ever heard. And Brew is spot on........Xavier was ranked 8th and the game was early in the season. Still plenty of time to talk about it.

Lets not get confused though. ESPN is not at fault. Xavier's idiocy under one Mike Sham is to blame.

GG, I know your opinions on this infuriate some here....but this post makes me smile. I agree with some of it and don't really have an opinion or disagree on other parts. Either way, this post just makes me smile. The tenacity....

[xubrew]

Bobinski said more than once that he was to blame for Tu and Mark going before the press. But, my understanding is that it wasn't him directly that allowed it to happen, but rather one of our so-called PR people, who, as far as I know, is still employed by the University. That is the sham! Two of our best players took the fall for an employee of the university making a massive, unforgivable, job-ending-in-most-situations mistake.

The normal course of events is that the media requests who they would like to speak to. The SID then goes to the locker room and gets whoever it is. For a regular season game, there just aren't that many hoops to jump through. The winning team almost always goes first, which is why Xavier was up there right after the game ended. Generally, the only reason players aren't allowed to talk to the media is because the coach doesn't want them to. So, I personally can't help but think that allowing them to talk at the press conference was anyone's fault other than Chris Mack's. I heard him interviewed on ESPN Radio afterwards, and he basically said it was his mistake.

If a PR person was some how made a part of this process, I have no idea why. Does Xavier routinely have a PR guy on hand in case a fight breaks out so they can intervene in which athletes are allowed to talk to the media??

[paulxu]

Well, aren't I the dumbsh$t.
All along I thought it was a bunch of pussycats who suckerpunched OUR guys, and kicked them in the head when they were down.
Better go take another look at the tape to clear this up.
Sorry about this. My bad. I'll get back to you on all this.

[XUFan09]

I'm a bit drunk but I love you, Paul.

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[xu82]

I'm a bit drunk but I love you, Paul.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

Ha! Half the posts here should probably have the same disclosure, but I appreciate your honesty! And Paul deserves your affection. (You're on your own Paul)

[xu82]

Not that there's anything wrong with that....

[X-man]

The normal course of events is that the media requests who they would like to speak to. The SID then goes to the locker room and gets whoever it is. For a regular season game, there just aren't that many hoops to jump through. The winning team almost always goes first, which is why Xavier was up there right after the game ended. Generally, the only reason players aren't allowed to talk to the media is because the coach doesn't want them to. So, I personally can't help but think that allowing them to talk at the press conference was anyone's fault other than Chris Mack's. I heard him interviewed on ESPN Radio afterwards, and he basically said it was his mistake.

If a PR person was some how made a part of this process, I have no idea why. Does Xavier routinely have a PR guy on hand in case a fight breaks out so they can intervene in which athletes are allowed to talk to the media??

Interesting because I recall him saying at one point on the radio that he didn't know they were in a presser because he was doing his post-game interview with Joe and Byron.

[American X]

I'm a bit drunk but I love you, Paul.

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Being a bit drunk and loving Paul goes without saying around here.

He reminds me of my grandfather......my grandfather who slaughtered an invasion of rabid bearcats on my hometown with a machete.......and invented day drinking......and live chat.

[paulxu]

If you were at the game in the Gardens in 1968 when we broke an 11 year losing streak to the pussycats, and much celebration ensued during and after the game....there is absolutely no truth to the rumor that I was the one with the machete. (It might have been Q however...)

[xubrew]

Interesting because I recall him saying at one point on the radio that he didn't know they were in a presser because he was doing his post-game interview with Joe and Byron.

That is interesting. I don't doubt that he said that and I don't believe for a second that you would make it up (I'm being serious). He said he didn't know. That is interesting.

Generally speaking, most coaches want to know who's been requested, and most requests are communicated within minutes (at most) of a game ending, especially if it's a regular season game. The regular routine I've seen is that the acting SID tells the coach who's been requested by the media when they give them the official game stats right after the game. Most coaches also like to go to the locker room first before they go on the air themselves. But, maybe that didn't happen here, and it's not their regular routine.

When I heard him on ESPN, maybe he just felt he should take responsibility even though it was beyond his control.

[XUFan09]

Ha! Half the posts here should probably have the same disclosure, but I appreciate your honesty! And Paul deserves your affection. (You're on your own Paul)

Lol I'm in NYC for my best friend's bachelor party. But yeah, Paul's posts in this thread are particularly entertaining.