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Mountain West Releases Statement Regarding Nevada vs. Utah State Post Game
Conference says court-storming had no bearing on Nevada’s outburst.
Contact/Follow @JeremyMauss & @MWCwire
Mountain West hands down no punishment.
It took nearly two days but the Mountain West has officially responded to the post-game incident that happened after Utah State’s upset home win over Nevada.
The Wolf Pack players were upset over something and erupted in the hallways of the Spectrum. There were allegations of fans touching at Wolf Pack players and/or Aggies coaches saying things toward the Nevada players.
Here is the complete statement from the Mountain West about the incident.
After a thorough investigation into the circumstances of Saturday night’s incident, which included a review of numerous video clips from various sources and the collection of written statements from multiple individuals, the Mountain West has concluded the situation was not caused by the court rush. There was a postgame management plan in place and it was executed successfully.
Rather, inappropriate conduct by individuals from both programs in the postgame handshake line and subsequently in the locker room areas created the unfortunate circumstances.
The Conference office has had multiple communications with both athletics directors and has shared the findings of its review. Each institution will be responsible for the determination and administration of what it deems appropriate disciplinary action for those involved. It must be made clear unsportsmanlike and unprofessional conduct is not acceptable and will not be tolerated.
This does make sense because we too have looked over multiple videos from those at the stadium as the Aggie fans rushed the court and it was not extremely clear that anyone made contact with Nevada players. The fans did rush quickly and there were still Wolf Pack players on the court at the time but no one seemed to make contact.
As for the handshake line, we have no clue what was or wasn’t said by who. There has been plenty of speculation and some vaguely sourced reports with some not being correct about no so nice things said, so we won’t speculate on the specifics.
This was a heated game with some questionable officiating in this matchup, and perhaps that led to words being exchanged as the league stated in its release.
Nevada released a statement on the incident, following what the conference sent out.
Our department is thankful for the diligence of the Mountain West Conference, and Utah State’s athletics administration, in their review of the events from Saturday night at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum in Logan.
We accept the review of the Mountain West and we will handle this matter internally. All parties involved can learn from this incident, and we will. The Mountain West believes in the highest ideals of sportsmanship and good behavior, and we will address this with members of our program who fell short of these ideals on Saturday night.
We will pay restitution to Utah State University for any property damages incurred during the incident.
As we learn from this, it’s time for all parties to move forward. We are eager to put this incident behind us and prepare for the final week of the regular season and the Mountain West Championships.
Additionally, there was a great amount of misinformation in some media reports, including an unfortunate misidentification of other Nevada staff members as head coach Eric Musselman. We’re appreciative of those media outlets and the wire services that have since corrected this information.
Utah State athletic director John Hartwell also released a statement:
“First of all, we want to thank both the Mountain West and the University of Nevada in helping us review the postgame incident from Saturday night. While unfortunate, it should not overshadow what was a great college basketball game between two NCAA Tournament-caliber teams.
After reviewing all the evidence, from surveillance video to eyewitness accounts, the incident was not a game management issue and was not caused by our students rushing the court.
The unsportsmanlike behavior following the game did not include any of our student-athletes, but rather a couple of staff members, which is unacceptable, and we will handle those issues internally. Moving forward, Utah State Athletics will review our game management procedures in an effort to continually learn and improve.”
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