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Posted by: Tom Miller on 3/13/2010 at 3:44 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink

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Posted by: Tom Miller on 3/12/2010 at 12:13 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink

The Fray at the McKay

Doesn't quite have the ring of the Malice at the Palace, but it's still clever come on.

There have been lots of questions about exactly what happened late in the UND men's basketball team's 70-57 loss to New Jersey Tech in Wednesday's first round of the Great West Conference postseason tournament in Orem, Utah. After the game, the teams had to be separated before the postgame handshake could go down.

I covered much of the ruckus in the game story here. But it's tough to explain everything in a game story on deadline, so here's everything I gathered from my seat along press row:

(The beauty of an empty arena is you hear basically everything exchanged).

Quick background: When the teams met two weeks ago late in the regular season, there were four technical fouls called and three game ejections for a spat between Travis Mertens and NJIT's Ryan Regis at the Betty.

Fast forward to Wednesday and it was clear neither team had forgotten that game. (All in all, though, it was a clean, physical game most of the way).

But with 1:04 remaining -- and UND in a must-foul situation -- UND forward Chris Clausen chased down Regis, who was all alone on a breakaway for a dunk. Clausen's hard foul resulted in an intentional foul.

In my opinion, the foul wasn't as bad as it could have been being that both players were running at full speed and Regis was leaving his feet just as Clausen caught up to him. After all, Regis never hit the floor. With that being said, it was the kind of hard foul that wouldn't have sat well with Sioux coaches had the tables been turned.

The play may have been water under the bridge, but ...

After Clausen's foul, NJIT coach Jim Engels shouted down towards UND's bench something to the effect of "You're classless". It's the kind of thing no coach in America would take sitting down.

And UND coach Brian Jones didn't. He leaned his 6-11 frame out near halfcourt and asked Engels who exactly he was talking to. Some minor back and forth and both coaches were called for technicals.

The rest of the game went without any major altercations; quite the feat being UND was in desperation foul mode. (Not a pretty situation for two teams that clearly despise each other).

As Jones and Engels went for a handshake after the game, Jones confronted Engels about who he was calling classless. The two began pointing at each other's chest before Engels dropped a priceless bomb.

"Why don't you shut the $%&# up," he yelled in a dead-silent gymnasium for all to hear, including UND athletic director Brian Faison and Great West Commissioner Ed Grom.

The F-Bomb sent both teams in a mini frenzy. Coaches from both teams had to hold back players. Clausen and Regis were the most notably restrained from going postal. Eventually, order was restored.

Summing up the situation from my perspective, I think it's tough to blame Jones for taking offense to an opposing coach yelling classless at either Jones or his team. Opposing coaches can yell at refs, his own assistants, his own players, but you don't turn to the other team. There's a reason you don't see it very often. 

Both coaches probably would do things differently looking back. For Jones, confronting the opposing coach prior to the postgame handshake probably wasn't the best move. For Engles, throwing around the word "classless" at the Clausen hard foul was plenty over-the-top and overdramatic. And once again, there can't be a coach in the country that wouldn't be up in arms over an opposing coach yelling that in his direction.

Posted by: Tom Miller on 3/11/2010 at 12:58 PM | Comments (16) | Permalink

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