We Reminisce: Georgetown Brawls With A Chinese Team

Missouri faced off against the national team of Netherlands on Saturday during a game of their exhibition tour, with Missouri easily outmatching the European squad by 25 points at halftime. The Dutch were understandably pissed, and started to take out their frustration on Mizzou with elbows, verbal exchanges and like. Except, unlike NBA refs who have quick trigger fingers and rarely let things get out of hand, these refs just couldn’t handle the mayhem. Missouri head coach Frank Haith had just been ejected for berating officials over a non-call on an elbow to forward Stefan Jankovic‘s head, so he decided to pull the plug. He and his players left the court, abandoning the game entirely.

Here’s more, via ESPN:

“‘In my mind I was just fearful for the safety of our players, but in retrospect I wish I had let our team play it out and learn from the adversity,’ Haith said. ‘I take complete responsibility. This is a learning experience for us all.'”

So, there you have it. Whether or not it was the right decision is up for debate. But, if you may remember, it’s been almost a year since the game between Georgetown and China’s Bayi Rockets quickly devolved into a riotous brawl. There were flying chairs, flying punches, water bottles thrown from the stands and everything you’d expect straight out of a movie. Eventually the Georgetown squad left the court before the game was over, got on the team bus and got the hell out of there. The team’s tour through China was cut short too, and that was that. Take a look, if you’ve forgotten: