Eighth-ranked Texas Tech came back from a seven-point halftime deficit at home to take down No. 2 West Virginia on Saturday in Lubbock to improve to 15-2 on the season and hand the Mountaineers their first loss in 16 games.
The Red Raiders earned the 72-71 victory in thrilling fashion and, as often happens in college hoops, the fans stormed the court after the win. One West Virginia player apparently took exception to the fans rushing the court, and his frustration with the loss (and possibly something the fan said) boiled over.
Wesley Harris, a sophomore forward who had eight points, swung on a fan that bumped into him. You can see No. 21 in the video below throw a hard left hook at a fan passing by, appearing to catch him in the back, luckily, and not the head.
I guess Wesley Harris #21 and @sagaba50 #50 from @WVUhoops were a little bitter after tonight’s loss to @TexasTechMBB Swinging at fans on the court 🙄 @Big12Conference @espn #wreckem #gunsup #ttu #wvu pic.twitter.com/cpTdNolmVX
— Steven Gutierrez (@steven__jpg) January 14, 2018
You can see Harris’ teammates quickly grab him and try to get him off the court before things escalate any further, with the fan spinning around to shout something back at him (but wisely not trying to pick a fight with a 6’8 college athlete). The school has not responded to the incident, but one would expect some disciplinary measure to come for Harris, who starts for the national championship contender.
Storming the court is a tradition of sorts in college, but with the opposing team’s players trying to get off the court, it’s somewhat surprising this kind of incident doesn’t happen more often in the heat of the moment of a close loss with people pouring onto the floor. The Big 12 could look into a rule change to prevent this from happening again in the future.
