ESPN’s Jay Bilas: “Very disappointed in comments of Lyons and Holloway. That’s not toughness. That’s classless. They should both apologize.”
CBS’s Seth Davis: “(ESPN’s) Doug Gottlieb (is) saying Holloway and Lyons should be suspended even longer for those comments. I agree.”
Xavier coach Chris Mack addressed the fracas on the Atlantic 10 teleconference Monday and insisted the players’ statements were out of character, particularly Holloway’s quote that made national news.
“We’re grown men over here,” Holloway explained. “We got a whole bunch of gangsters in the locker room. Not thugs, but tough guys on the court.”
UC and Xavier each suspended four players. The Bearcats’ four will sit out a total of 25 games; the Musketeers’ quartet will miss 11 games, including Holloway’s one.
“Tu made a very poor choice of words,” Mack said. “He was as apologetic as I’ve ever heard Tu on Sunday morning when I talked to him. He couldn’t believe — especially after explaining what he meant by the comment immediately afterward — that it was taken that way. But I can understand why it was taken that way. I think he does now, unfortunately.
“It’s hard to put the milk back in the carton. When Tu referred to gangsters in the locker room and then quickly said, ‘Not thugs, but tough guys on the court,’ I know ESPN, the first time they played it, Doug Gottlieb in the studio stopped after the word ‘gangsters.’ And again, (it was) a very poor choice of words. Tu is paying the consequences.”
The brawl was so ugly that a Hamilton County prosecutor is considering pressing criminal charges. Asked if Kenny Frease — who was hit with a haymaker from UC’s Yancy Gates and then kicked by another Bearcat — is considering filing charges, Mack said: “That’s probably not my jurisdiction. I’m sure Kenny and his family have talked about that issue.”
Mack, though, also said he wishes he had done things differently, most notably subbing for Holloway and other first-stringers before the fists started flying with nine seconds left in ninth-ranked Xavier’s 76-53 win. But the third-year coach didn’t see an opportune time to make that move.
“We were up with two minutes and, I think, two seconds, and that was the last stoppage of play before the fight. In hindsight, I wish I would have pulled my starters and put some substitutes in. (But) we have not played particularly well at the end of games. We have not closed games. We have not finished games.
“Against Georgia, a lead of 36 dwindles down to a 14-point win at home. On the road at Butler, up 19 in the first half, (it) becomes a four-point game with eight minutes to play. I wanted our kids to sort of have that feeling in the locker room that, wow, we finished the game finally.
“(Since) there wasn’t a stoppage of play, I said, ‘You know what, I’m not going to call timeout’ — because even though you do that a majority of time as a coach, I felt like I didn’t want it to be a celebration right in front of UC. I didn’t want it to be our seniors running around the court and waving their hands to the crowd and sort of embarrass the opponent. ... If we’re ever in that situation again, I’ve obviously learned to do it better the next time.”
Temple coach Fran Dunphy has been in many heated city rivalries as part of Philadelphia’s Big 5. He believes keeping players’ emotions in check isn’t always easy.
“Obviously, it’s an unfortunate situation, and no one feels worse than Chris and the Xavier folks,” Dunphy said. “It could happen to anybody’s program. ... Sometimes the (players’) focuses are not there all the time, and that’s one of the things that happens.”
About the Author