Rick Pitino, Kim English React to Second Half Brawl, Multiple Ejections
A scary scene unfolded in Rhode Island on Saturday after Providence forward Duncan Powell delivered a hard foul on Bryce Hopkins in transition. The flagrant foul led to a big scuffle and multiple ejections.
Powell was ejected from the game, as well as Providence guard Jaylin Sellers and St. John’s forward Dillon Mitchell for their part in the scuffle. St. John’s players Kelvin Odih, Ruben Prey and Lefteris Liotopoulos were ejected for leaving the bench. The Friar faithful cheered on Powell as he left the court.
Providence held a 40-39 lead at the time of the scuffle, but St. John’s point guard Dylan Darling caught fire with 16 points down the stretch to help the Johnnies secure a 79-69 road win.
Rick Pitino and Kim English shared a brief handshake after the game, and the players went straight back to the tunnel. Here’s everything the two head coaches had to say about the scuffle postgame:
RICK PITINO
On the scuffle and ejections: “I think you saw it as well as me. But I didn’t have the film in front of me to look at everybody. You’re not supposed to come off the bench, but you can’t let your players get beat up. So.”
“I didn’t see it. It was a tough game to officiate certainly. The crowd lost objectivity of what they’re here for. If they’re here to just poke fun at Bryce Hopkins and not get a win for the Friars, that’s not the Friars I remember in 87. So you got to try to win and we’re really excited to get a W because we were without a lot of players and we still came away with a victory. So I’m proud of our guys.”
“Listen, we didn’t initiate anything. We talk toughness is not turning the ball over. Creating steals. Getting offensive rebounds. That’s what we believe toughness is, and that’s all we talked about the entire time.”
A reporter tried to ask the players about the scuffle: “We’re not going to address that. Let the league address it. If you want to talk basketball, we’ll talk basketball. You write what you saw. Don’t ask my players.”
On how his team responded to the scuffle: “We feel toughness is getting steals, getting rebounds, getting deflections, setting great screens. That’s what we describe as toughness. You can’t fight. Back when I was the Kentucky coach we fought almost every SEC game and it was not a big deal. But you can fight anymore so toughness has to come between the lines.”
KIM ENLGISH
Opening statement: “I thought we came out really good in the second half. The scrum happened, I thought at a bad time for us. We had the lead. We’re up one. I thought it was a manageable play in transition, flagrant. And then everything else ensued. And then, ran out of guys. Ran out of guys. They’re a great defensive team. Yeah, tough outcome.”
On Powell’s foul: “There’s absolutely a time to have hard fouls. There’s a time to have hard fouls through a guys arm. You never want to hit anyone in the head intentionally obviously. I didn’t think that was a time for hard fouls. As I watched it live, I thought he could have just ran harder and got in front of him and had a good legal play honestly. I thought if he ran hard he could’ve gotten in front of him. He actually blocked the ball clean, but then he came through his face after.”
On Sellers/Mitchell and the overall scuffle: “I don’t think Jaylin Sellers should’ve been ejected from what I saw. He gave a push equal to a push that Oziyah Sellers gave Duncan right away. Dillon Mitchell gave Jaylin a cheapshot push in his back. But I’m not arguing with any of those guys. Those guys saw it and made the call. As disappointing as it was, I thought it was a good crew for us tonight.”
On Jamier Jones’ flagrant foul later in the second half: “On offense, on defense, he’s been using two hands to push. Just keep coaching it and let him know it’s not a basketball play. You never want to hit someone, just like football, you don’t block in the back. You don’t push anyone, you don’t touch anyone in their back in basketball. So I’m disappointed. He’s young. He didn’t practice for a week about now. I thought he was tired, gassed. And fatigue in an already young player usually doesn’t bring out the best outcomes.”
On the environment: “I know it was an emotionally charged crowd. I don’t like when anyone is talking about ‘F you.’ I don’t like that. I don’t think our college president, our board would like that. We’re a Christian college. We have a great home court. It’s still great if we did without that.”
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