The NIT began yesterday and there were (and still are) a few Big East teams competing. #6 seeded St John's and #2 seeded Cincinnati play tonight. #4 seeded UConn scraped by Northeastern last night in Storrs. South Florida and Seton Hall, both favorites in terms of seeding, lost on their home courts.
But the story of the night in the NIT were the two crotch punches. Seton Hall's Herb Pope (who has played pretty well recently) got tangled up with Texas Tech's Darko Cohadarevic on the defensive end. As Darko ran down the court complaining for a foul, Herb obviously got a little annoyed and as he came down to defend, he got a jab straight to his manhood. Cringe-worthy.
That is just awful. Herb Pope has had a really tough life: he's been shot, his parents were drug addicts who abandoned him, etc. But that is absolutely no excuse. Basketball is a tough game and it takes some maturity and restraint (like mine to not make a "balls" or "nuts" pun throughout this entry) to not want to punch someone sometimes. But come on Herb. Relax.
As another note, Bobby Gonzalez, who is as sleazy a coach as they come, got fired afterward. I'm sure this incident wasn't the impetus for the firing. (Bobby G hasn't been to the NCAA Tournament in his four years as coach and this year had all his players.) But it could have been the straw that broke the camel's back. Good riddance.
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