Arizona men’s basketball and BYU found themselves in a tightly-knit, tense game Saturday at the McKale Center, as the two Big 12 opponents fought for March Madness seedings.
The tensions escalated so much in the final seconds of the game that players from the Wildcats and Cougars had to be separated from each other in the postgame handshake line as a brawl began to break out on the court.
ESPN broadcaster Rich Hollenberg mentioned on the broadcast that Arizona guard Caleb Love had to be escorted away from the incident (and off the court) by one of the Wildcat’s managers.
‘Not sure. Honestly, I’d have to see it on the film. There’s a lot going on in that. At the end of the day, I think it’s just two really competitive groups in a hostile environment and sometimes that happens,’ BYU coach Kevin Young said postgame on the tensions of the game and the incident.
‘We’re not trying to start anything so I’ll have to see what happened on the film and address it with our team.’
The Cougars pulled off the top-20 upset with a pair of free throws from Richie Saunders with 3.2 seconds left, a result of a controversial foul on Wildcats’ forward Trey Townsend. The tensions between both teams started just a few seconds earlier when Love appeared to have drawn a foul on his made basket but officials did not call it.
Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd did not discuss the incident in his postgame news conference, as he was not asked about it by a member of the media. When asked about it during the player portion of Arizona’s postgame news conference, Love said it was ‘just talking.’
‘It was just talking. It was nothing crazy,’ Love said.
Arizona Athletic Director issues statement on postgame incident
That wasn’t the only postgame incident to have taken place at the McKale Center. Following the Wildcat’s loss to the Cougars, videos surfaced on X (formerly Twitter) of Arizona fans saying a derogatory chant toward BYU.
Arizona athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois issued an apology statement to BYU following the game on the department’s official X account, calling the chant ‘unacceptable.’
‘Following tonight’s men’s basketball game, it was brought to our attention that an unacceptable chant occurred. On behalf of the University of Arizona Athletic Department, we apologize to BYU, their student-athletes, coaches and fans. The chant is not reflective of who we are and should not have happened,’ Reed-Francois said.
With the loss and Texas Tech’s win over West Virginia, Arizona moved into a two-way tie for second place in the Big 12 standings at 12-4 in conference play. The Wildcats, who are 18-9 overall, return to action on Wednesday against Utah at 9 p.m. ET.
BYU (19-8, 10-6 in Big 12) will close out their two-game road trip to The Grand Canyon State on Wednesday against Arizona State at 9:30 p.m. ET.