Wyoming/UNM Fight 1/31
 

In case you missed it:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=nSQhWJWNpp4

There referees were David Hall, Dan Chrisman, and Mike Giarratano.

Question: During a fight, do you (as officials) try to break it up or just stay back, take numbers, and let the coaches break it up?

I've been at a camp where D-1 coordinators that say don't put you're hands on a player. They could take a swing at you and you can be injured. Or you end up grabbing the player, bring him down, and you end up injuring the player.

I like the "take a step back and take numbers" approach. It would be much safer. What do you think?

In high school ball we don't have the use of a replay. It is much easier to stop a fight before it breaks out then stop it after it has begun. I am with you to step back and take numbers.

I didn't watch more than just the start of the fight but I think I would have gone in like the covering official did. At that point it still looked like getting in there might have stopped it. Obviously it didn't work, but was worth trying.

I think at the point I got knocked down, I would try to get out and get numbers rather than stay in like he did.

I am from Wyoming
 

I am from the Cowboy State so I happened to be watching this game. The radio station that carries the cowboys here is the flagship station for the cowboy sports network, as such they provide the engineers and such at the site. One of the engineers said that in the melee Dave Hall did get hit by the UNM player. He must be ok though, because last night he was working the Oregon UCLA game. Suspensions came down from the league/teams yesterday. The instigator from WY got the mandatory 1 game suspension for fighting, the second WY guy in the mess, the one that shoved the UNM player got 2 games he has to miss the next game then the last game of the season when UNM comes to Laramie. The guy you can see "kicking or stomping" got an indefinite suspension, not from the league, the University of Wyoming handed it out. If he does make it back, he will at least miss the next game and the game when UNM comes to Laramie. The original combatant from UNM got a two game suspension, the next game and the game in Laramie, and one other UNM guy got the same thing. The interesting thing I thought was that none of the New Mexico players that left the bench were issued T's. They didn't really do anything when they got there but they did leave the bench...the Wyoming guy doing the stomping has been a thug all year long and I am actually glad he has been indefinitely suspended...the two guards will be missed for their suspensions, but they get what they deserved....

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The Mountain West Conference, the University of New Mexico and the University of Wyoming have completed a thorough review of the incident that occurred at the 1:10 mark in the second half of the Wyoming at New Mexico men's basketball contest played Tuesday, January 30 in Albuquerque, and have jointly established the following disciplinary actions for the involved parties. In addition to the automatic NCAA penalties, violations of MWC Sportsmanship Rule 4 were also identified and addressed accordingly.

#23 Brandon Ewing, University of Wyoming
• Automatic one-game suspension from next WYO regular-season game due to flagrant technical foul and ejection for fighting (NCAA Rule 10, Section 19, Article 1). To be served Saturday, February 3 (Wyoming at Air Force).

#53 Daniel Faris, University of New Mexico
• Public reprimand due to violation of MWC Sportsmanship Rule Section 4.2.

#15 J.R. Giddens, University of New Mexico
• Public reprimand due to violation of MWC Sportsmanship Rule Section 4.2-(c).

#0 Aaron Johnson, University of New Mexico
• Public reprimand due to violation of MWC Sportsmanship Rule Section 4.2.

#1 Brad Jones, University of Wyoming
• Automatic one-game suspension from next WYO regular-season game due to flagrant technical foul and ejection for fighting (NCAA Rule 10, Section 19, Article 1). To be served Saturday, February 3 (Wyoming at Air Force).






• Additional one-game suspension from subsequent WYO regular-season game due to violations of MWC Sportsmanship Rule Sections 4.2-(a) through (d). To be served Saturday, March 3 (New Mexico at Wyoming).

#24 Darren Prentice, University of New Mexico
• One-game suspension from subsequent UNM regular-season game due to violation of MWC Sportsmanship Rule Section 4.2. To be served Saturday, March 3 (New Mexico at Wyoming).

#10 Jamaal Smith, University of New Mexico
• Automatic one-game suspension from next UNM regular-season game due to flagrant technical foul and ejection for fighting (NCAA Rule 10, Section 19, Article 1). To be served Saturday, February 3 (New Mexico at Colorado State).

• Additional one-game suspension from subsequent UNM regular-season game due to violations of MWC Sportsmanship Rule Sections 4.2-(a) through (d). To be served Saturday, March 3 (New Mexico at Wyoming).

#20 Joseph Taylor, University of Wyoming
• Indefinite suspension by the University of Wyoming from subsequent WYO regular-season games due to violations of institutional guidelines and MWC Sportsmanship Rule Sections 4.2-(a)-(c). Conference to accept institutional sanction. At least one game of the suspension to be served Saturday, March 3 (New Mexico at Wyoming).

Each of the involved student-athletes in now also subject to more stringent penalties under MWC Sportsmanship Rule 4 if they are involved in any future unsporting behavior.

"This altercation was extremely unfortunate, totally unacceptable and reflected negatively on the Conference and the two participating institutions," said Commissioner Craig Thompson. "A swift and forceful response was warranted in this case and I want to thank both UNM Athletics Director Paul Krebs and WYO Athletics Director Tom Burman for their cooperation and for their support of the MWC's sportsmanship standards. I would also like to commend both coaching staffs and the game officials for their efforts at the time of the incident to bring it under control."

The Mountain West Conference will have no further comment regarding this case. The provisions of the MWC Sportsmanship Policy can be found in Rule 4 of the MWC Handbook - which can be accessed via the www.TheMWC.com

There is a more to this video than has been mentioned here yet. If you listen/watch the video from about the 3:15 minute point on you can here the officials (in the background) reviewing the tape pointing what they see. Kind of informative. (I presume it is the officials by the way they are speaking and what they are saying.) Pretty interesting.

Quotes from background - "They get tangled up here", "White kid pulls him down", "He goes too cause he pushed a guy", "pushed him off", etc.... You can listen to it yourself.

Discussion about who is on the line and who is being ejected. As usual, if the anouncer would have shut-up it would have been more interesting.

C was way to high on the play, no way he could officiate rebounding, should have had a foul that most likely would have prevented the fight. Lead then calls a foul and starts walking away with two players on the ground right next to eachother. Moving towards the players (instead of towards the table) may have also prevented what occurred.

Once the fight actually starts like it did I am not getting involved, I will try to keep other players from getting involved if at all possible but I am certainly not going to risk my own safety by jumping on players or getting in between flying fists. I will get inbetween players when players are in eachotheres face before fighting has actually happened.

In a HS game it is important that the trail (in this play) stop benches from clearing if at all possible. And when players do leave the bench take note of numbers so they can be properly ejected since we don't have the luxary of instant replay.

The other two officials should observe the fight and take note of players that need to be charged with a technical foul or ejection. At this point hopefully game management can put an end to it.

Using common sense is important, ie coaches who leave the bench to help break up the fight should not be ejected.

Interesting play to watch and definitely a good one to learn from.

At least that's my opinion.

I agree, noteably on your first point. If C would have been lower, he likely would have had a foul on the original play. If he comes in strong with it, toward the players, probably no fight.

I believe each player that leaves the bench are automatically ejected. If they don't fight then no FTs are shot.

I like your observation. If the L freezes instead of rushing to the table, he probably could've closed in faster on the fight.

But once the fight starts, I'm outta there and just taking numbers. :)

Ok, now for all of those who have previously stated that any punishment of officials shouldn't be public when they screw up, you better be consistent and come out now and complain about these players getting a public reprimand.

If an official gets into a fight during a game, I (and most on here) would have absolutely no problem with a public reprimand.

The players didn't get a public reprimand when they missed a shot. Consistency has nothing to do with anything here.

In regards to the comments about the C being too high to see the original takedown, it looks like the C and T are switching right as the shot goes up. At the beginning of the Youtube clip, the official at the top of the screen is lower, and then when the pg starts to dribble to the left, it looks like they start to switch, and the C is stuck in no-man's-land as the shot goes up. Is he just a little slow switching, or is this yet another spot where you can't really do much, because it is almost impossible to see everything that may happen on the court?

Apples and oranges. When you start seeing public reprimands for players who miss key shots, run the wrong play, fail to execute the offense, turn over the ball based on the misapplication of a rule, blow defensive assignments, etc., then I'll feel the officials are on equal ground for missing judgement calls and kicking rules.

But fighting is a whole different matter. Perhaps the equivalent would be for an official to coldcock a mouthy coach. For that, I'd expect a lot more than a public reprimand. Hmmm, still not really the same, is it?

Not necessarily true in NFHS. Once a bench player leaves the bench during a fight; it's a flagrant foul regardless. Regardless of the number of players who do this, only one technical is charged to the team and it is an indirect to the coach. If only one team commits this "crime," then the free throws will be shot.