The Kentucky Wildcats just barely avoided disaster in more ways than one on Wednesday evening.
First of all, they avoided what would’ve been a disappointing upset against unranked Oklahoma. They hung on to win in a wild finish, 83-82. With the Wildcats being ranked 17th in the nation, another conference loss would’ve done damage to their NCAA tournament hopes (and a million nascent brackets, of course!).
More importantly however, they avoided a dangerous encounter with fans on the way to the locker room after the game.
What led up to it was Kentucky sophomore Brandon Garrison going face-to-face with Oklahoma freshman Jeremiah Fears. Garrison is from Oklahoma and played for the Sooners before transferring to Kentucky, so emotion was understandably running high. After that died down, there was another incident that took place near Kentucky’s locker room tunnel.
Flying Beer Can
On the way to the locker room, Wildcats grad student Amari Williams threw up W’s at the Sooners fans, and unfortunately someone threw a beer from the stands. Watch the video below. Luckily, no players got hit and everyone got off the court just in time. But it could have understandably gotten ugly.
Just think of how fast the Malice in the Palace escalated from a thrown drink.
Check it out:
Sadly, this is not the first time fans have done this.
Other Notable Examples
A few years ago in the Philadelphia 76ers-Washington Wizards playoff series, when Russell Westbrook was with the Washington Wizards, a Philadelphia fan threw popcorn at Westbrook as he was leaving the court after injuring his ankle.
Things got just a bit dicey – watch:
The one incident that put college basketball court-storming in a negative spotlight happened just a year ago.
After a big upset win for Wake Forest over fourth-ranked Duke, fans stormed the court as the final buzzer sounded and Duke players could not get off the court in time. Kyle Filipowski unfortunately injured his ankle after a Wake Forest fan ran through him.
In short – rowdy fans can quickly go from having a good time to putting people in danger – including themselves. It’s a good thing that didn’t happen in Kentucky’s case, or they’d have more to worry about than another conference loss.
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