The Musketeers and Bearcats took the court on Saturday with every intention of proving who the better college team was in the city of Cincinnati. Little did we know, basketball would not be enough to settle the score. Xavier blew Cincinnati out, 76-53, but the big story was a brawl broke out that resulted in the game being called with 9.4 seconds left. Here is the Xavier-Cincinnati fight video:
The fight started when Xavier’s Tu Holloway and Cincinnati’s Ge’Lawn Guyn began bickering at each other in front of the Cincinnati bench. Things got out of hand in a hurry, as you saw when Yancy Gates punches Xavier’s Kenny Frease in the mouth and sent him to the ground bleeding. Punches were being thrown everywhere and enormous suspensions are certainly looming.
After the game, Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said he was upset with the officials because he saw the fight brewing the entire second half and asked them to put a stop to the trash talk that was going on. He handled his press conference perfectly, which can be heard in it’s entirety here. Rather than pointing fingers and playing the blame game, Cronin blamed everyone equally and expressed concern over college athletes forgetting what they came to school for.
“Guys need to grow up,” Cronin said sternly. “From our standpoint we accept full responsibility and it will be handled. There is zero excuse for that in basketball. You’ve got to learn how to win on one side and you’ve got to learn how to lose on the other side. These kids all need to realize that they’re here to get an education.
“These guys, very few of them are ever going to make a dollar playing basketball. They’re here to get an education at two great universities and they need to appreciate that. The world (doesn’t) revolve around them, around basketball. They need to learn how to act. They need to learn how to have respect for the fact that they’re on a scholarship, that people come to see them play.
“Now I understand there’s media and people asking for autographs, but it’s a prime example of guys thinking they’re too important. There’s too much glorification of all the sports in our society. The fact is, the guys are here to get an education.”
Cronin said he’s going to meet with his athletic director and the university’s president to decide who will even be allowed to remain on the team going forward. He added that he’s never been more embarrassed as a coach and hopes the school’s president doesn’t ask him to resign. Cronin was clearly aggravated at the entire situation, but everything he said is spot on. We strongly recommend checking out the entire interview.
