There was a controversy for the second consecutive year following UNLV's win over BYU in the Mountain West tournament. BYU fans complained last year that UNLV fans were abusive during their run to the court -- taunting players wives on the way to celebrate. And this year was no different.Other than, of course, for the accounts of what actually happened.
The Las Vegas Review Journal didn't make mention of any incident, and chatter on the UNLV message boards indicate that it was the wife of Lee Cummard who was throwing punches and "tackling UNLV fans."
Salt Lake-based Desert Morning News, however, was extremely critical of the UNLV fans in an editorial. Here is the most graphic details of what "actually" happened.
Despite increased security and an elevated hockey-fence barrier set around the perimeter of the floor in the Thomas & Mack arena Saturday - to prevent the equipment damaging, cheerleader and photographer toppling floor rush by partisan fans of a year ago - nothing could stop a bloody clash between UNLV fans bent on rushing the floor this time.Uh yeah, care to be over dramatic much?
Some triggered brawls when they clashed with exiting BYU fans on two aisles. Near another aisle, a wedge of UNLV fans plowed through blue-clad BYU band members scrambling to protect their clarinets and tubas.
Does this paper have an agenda because this account seems pretty heavy-handed? There obviously was some sort of skirmish that happened between the heated rivals, but this is kind overboard.
Does anybody believe that BYU would not have rushed the courts if they had won the tournament? This is what fans do in March. The arena staff should just be prepared for the upcoming rush and leave an isle for the fans to rush down on to the floor. Expecting the fans to not rush the court after winning the conference tournament just isn't realistic.
At the same time, BYU fans should have turned the other cheek in regards to the taunts. Again from the Desert Morning News:
A line of UNLV fans on the floor taunted wives of Cougar juniors Lee Cummard and Trent Plaisted, yelling, "Twice, Twice." The players' wives responded by pointing to ring fingers and saying "Two ring, two rings."Kind of hard to play the martyr card when you are the ones inciting the riot. Maybe instead of trying to keep the fans off the court next year, the conference should do a better job of separating the fans during the conference tournament so this doesn't happen again.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-18-2008 @ 2:28PM
Rebel Mania said...
I have to say that Saturday was a beautiful day for me, not only did UNLV win the MTN West Tournament, but they did it by embarrassing BYU again. BYU fans are some of the mst arrogant fans you will ever meet, anytime UNLV has played them in either Football or Basketball the fans that travel with them are yelling and cursing at UNLV players and fans alike. When BYU beat UNLV up in the Marriot Center earlier this year fans were calling the Rebel players racial slurs and were throwing things at them as they were walking back into the locker rooms. So much for sportsmanship and Mormon hospitality. The problem is that BYU feels like they are entitled to everything. They lost 2 out of 3 meetings this year, and 4 out of 6 in the last 2 years to UNLV, and that does not fit into there holy than though mentality. I think they knew as did the rest of the MTN West, that if they were going to exact some sort of revenge on UNLV for last years success, that this was the year that it was going to happen with the Rebels losing 5 players from last years team, but that didn't happen and with UNLV being loaded next year, the gap might start to become even wider.
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3-19-2008 @ 12:19AM
JT said...
I don't know which is worse, this biased article by someone who clearly wasnt at the game, or the lame UNLV fan venting his frustration. Why would you even bring the Mormon Church into it - - its a game!
As for the author - whats the old saying 'the pot calling the kettle black'. You say that the SLC paper is over the top and then go and print quotes about players wives taunting the UNLV fans? What happened to journalism and professionalism. Please tell me you got those quotes from a bunch of angry UNLV fans and then printed them with out ever checking for accuracy. Nice try . . . maybe you should write about fishing, or sewing.
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3-19-2008 @ 2:30AM
Glenn Connelly said...
I was there as a photographer for my student newspaper (The Daily Aztec, SDSU) shooting the final game. I was up in the middle of the fans, so I did not see the fights happening, although some other photographers did, including Chris Detrick of the Salt Lake Tribune.
This multimedia piece is from the game.
http://www.tribtowns.com/multimedia/2008/0315BYUUNLVBBall/
Great images, and towards the end (16 seconds left in the piece, I believe) there are images of one fan bloodied and an image allegedly of Cummard's wife yelling at UNLV fans after the game.
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3-19-2008 @ 6:39PM
Scott said...
It sounds like the guy who made the first comment has some sort of vendetta against BYU, or maybe he just doesn't like its church affiliation. He sounds pretty ridiculous. It was a great game and UNLV has a great team. Being in the conference, I hope that they go far in the NCAA tourney. I also think, though, that they need to stop serving alcohol at Thomas and Mack Arena.
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