Ejections after Cal-Stanford scrap highlight need for a rule change

[APG]

Y! SPORTS

At the end of a skirmish late in the second half of Wednesday night's Pac-12 rivalry game between Cal and Stanford, referees reviewed the incident on a monitor and made a ruling that caught most viewers by surprise.

They ejected assistant coaches who sprinted off their respective benches to separate the players involved and ensure the scuffle didn't escalate further.

Tempers boiled over with about five five minutes remaining in Stanford's 83-70 road victory when there was a scramble for a loose ball and Cardinal forward Dwight Powell caught Cal's Allen Crabbe in the chest with an elbow. After appearing to flop in hopes of drawing a flagrant foul, Crabbe then got up and ran at Powell, igniting a shoving match that resulted in no punches thrown but two players and three assistant coaches being ejected for leaving the bench.

The irony of Cal assistant Gregg Gottlieb and Stanford assistants Charles Payne and Mark Madsen being tossed is all three did a great job pulling players away from each other in order to make sure a full-fledged brawl didn't ensue. Coaches on both sides surely knew that a punch could result in at least a one-game suspension for the offending player, something neither side could afford with no games left prior to the start of the Pac-12 tournament.

By rule, the referees acted appropriately ejecting the three assistants because the NCAA rulebook states that only "the head coach may leave the bench area in this case to prevent the situation from escalating." That's probably something the rules committee may want to address because in this case the assistants acted in a way that benefited both their teams and the game.