Last night’s rivalry game between Kansas and Kansas State wasn’t very close, but still managed to have an exciting finish. As Kansas prepared to dribble out the final seconds of a routine blowout win, Kansas State guard DaJuan Gordon stole the ball and looked to pad his stats a bit in what would ultimately remain a 20-point loss for his team had he made the fastbreak layup. Kansas forward Silvio De Sousa, the player who Gordon stoke the ball from, was not prepared to sit idly by and let his rival get away with such a lack of sponsorship, a sentiment that carries some heavy irony given what happened next:
Although the block appeared to have come at the buzzer at first glance, a review determined that there was still time on the clock when the ball was spiked out of bounds. The game continued despite the mayhem that had just taken place. De Sousa was given a technical foul for taunting and each team had their benches ejected for stepping onto the court during the brawn. Kansas State’s Pierson McAtee hit one of two technical free throws and the game ended.
Kansas head coach Bill Self called the incident a “melee” and an “embarrassment” in his postgame press conference after the game:
Discipline from both the NCAA and each individual program is expected to come down shortly. De Sousa, who stood over Kansas State’s DaJuan Gordon after the block and held a chair over his head as if he was prepared to attack someone with it at one point during the brawl, has been suspended indefinitely.
Kansas and Kansas State are scheduled to meet again on February 29th.
Photo: (Jamie Squire – Getty Images)