Leave the rule the way it is and give the officials the flexibility to look at replay to determine whether the assistants were peacemakers and helpful or not. In this case they were and they should not have been ejected.

Years ago, we ran through this in a chapter meeting -- a simulated fight -- and talked about as a mock crew how to handle it. It was quickly decided that the coaches who came on the floor to get their own players off were deemed to have been "beckoned" on the court by the officials, even if retroactively. Now, if an assistant is exacerbating trouble or can't keep their own players on the bench, use the rule to inflict appropriate penalties.

The Cal player who started this needs to be suspended for more than just a game. He flopped and retaliated for nothing. Cal was clearly looking for an excuse to start something and this needs to be dealt with severely by the conference and the NCAA.

If they keep the rule the way it is, the assistants would be rejected regardless. I agree with your suggestion in that peacekeepers shouldn't be ejected. I also can't say for certain, but if I were a betting man, I'm guessing, at least at this level, assistants come out on the floor more often than not...and aren't getting ejected for it either which is "right" in my opinion.

I've went back and viewed 4 altercations or potential altercations, and assistants came out in EVERY single instance and no ejections were handed to the assistants. It would appear this crew handled this contrary to how this is usually handled at this level. I wonder if the crews were dinged for not doing so...if I had to guess, I'd say not.

If you allow assistant coaches to come off the bench to pull players apart, what is to stop a player from coming off the bench even to do the same thing? When a fight breaks out it is usually a maximum of 4 players. That means there are another 9 people (6 players, 3 officials) on the court who can work to separate the combatants. In my mind, a player or coach coming from the bench is more likely to aggravate the situation than help it.

If the rule allowed assistant coaches to help, players would still be prevented. They aren't stupid.

This makes no sense. Let's assume all 10 players on the court are going at it. How in the heck are 2 people (one HC from each side) supposed to stop this? Also why are we assuming that the players will listen any more to the HC than an AC in these types of situations. I think the rule should be changed.

BTW what is to happen to any security personnel that help break up the fracas? Are we to have them shackled and sent to the dungeons?

In January, NCAAW received a video bulletin from Debbie Williamson dealing with stuff like this and she didn't sound happy that assistants weren't ejected for coming off the bench during an altercation (near-fight between Md & UNC). Does anyone know whether NCAAM received anything similar this season?

That play was a mess... There's no way I would've gotten all that right from what Debbie explained on that video.

Agreed, adds to the chaos Can you say Jeff Van Gundy. Every fight you ever can visualize has the 'suits' flaying around, Joseph A. Banks ties a flyin'