LOGAN, Utah (97.1 The Ticket) -- The Utah State men's basketball team secured its biggest win of the season and possibly punched a ticket to the NCAA Tournament by
upsetting No. 12 Nevada in Logan Saturday night.
Aggies fans flooded the floor following the final buzzer, sending Dee Glen Smith Spectrum into a frenzy.
Nevada players and coaches were forced to use a different tunnel to reach their locker room during the madness, as fans had blocked the tunnel on their side of the court.
Explicit video posted to social media by Jake Edmonds of KUTV in Utah shows Wolf Pack big man Jordan Caroline visibly upset, apparently punching the glass casing around a fire extinguisher. Teammates and staff had to restrain Caroline, who was reportedly upset over something a Utah State assistant coach said either in the handshake line or in the tunnel.
Duke Ritenhouse of the
Reno Gazette Journal reports that Nevada coaches were upset over the possible actions of one of the Utah State coaches. One Nevada coach in the video is captured saying "That's not happened one time since we've been in this league, somebody says 'f--- you' to a whole line. That's unacceptable on your guys' part. That's your assistant coach."
It remains unclear whether an Aggies assistant literally said those words to Nevada players during the handshake line or if the Wolf Pack coach was using the phrase as a metaphor.
In the video, coaches also allege Aggie fans "touched our (expletive) players."
A second angle of the incident, also containing explicit language, shows what appears to be a police officer or arena security guard rushing into the scrum of coaches, yelling "get in your room!" A few seconds later a Nevada staff member says to the officer, "where was that (expletive) urgency when our players were getting touched by their fans?"
This was Nevada's third loss of the season, all of which have come on the road, with opposing fans also storming the courts at New Mexico and San Diego State, with no incidents reported and no complaints of behavior from Nevada players or coaches.
Video of the court storming does not clearly show any incidents of fans touching players, but one grainy video possibly appears to show Caroline stop several times and turn toward the crowd, while staff members continue to push him along.
The Associated Press reported Saturday that Wolf Pack coach Eric Musselman went on an expletive-laced tirade outside the locker room and had to be restrained by police officials," though video shows Musselman mostly calm throughout the incident and leading his staff toward the locker room. It is unclear if there was a prior incident not captured on camera.
Nevada coaches and players were not made available to the media following the game.
The win pushed Utah State (24-6, 14-3 Mountain West) into a half-game lead over the Wolf Pack (26-3, 13-3). Utah State wraps up the regular season Tuesday at Colorado State, while Nevada has games at Air Force and against San Diego State.
The two Mountain West rivals could potentially meet again in the conference championship game in Las Vegas later this month.
