The Big 12 Conference on Monday reprimanded both West Virginia forward Wesley Harris and Texas Tech for Saturday's court-storming incident at United Supermarkets Arena.
The Red Raiders' 72-71 victory over the second-ranked Mountaineers prompted fans to pour onto the court from both endlines at the final buzzer. It was the first top-10 win in Lubbock for Tech.
Bumped by fans amid the chaos, Harris spun and hit an individual with his forearm, knocking Brooks Jennings' cap off. Jennings is the son of former Red Raider standout and assistant coach Bubba Jennings. Tech was fined $25,000 for mishandling the post-game environment, as reported by the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
"We must ensure that a safe environment is provided for players, coaches, game officials and fans," Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said in a statement. "Although the post-game environment did not live up to our expectations, Mr. Harris intentionally striking a fan is contrary to the conference's sportsmanship standards."
The athletic directors from both schools issued their own statements.
"We admittedly did fail to meet our expectations Saturday in efforts to secure the floor and allow West Virginia to exit without incident," Tech AD Kirby Hocutt said. "We have the utmost confidence in our game-day operations staff, including police and security, to provide a safe environment for everyone at the United Supermarkets Arena. We have a plan to ensure the safety of the teams, officials and fans. This plan has been executed many times in the past without any incidents. We will make the necessary adjustments to continue to ensure that all in attendance have an excellent experience at all of our events."
WVU's Shane Lyons stated, "I want to thank the Big 12 Conference and Texas Tech for the positive and open dialogue all three parties engaged in during the last two days. As I said before, this situation involved court security, player safety and post-game emotions, and all three had to be taken into account. We will revisit with our student-athletes to again reinforce our expectations regarding sportsmanship issues across all sports. The Big 12 has issued its reprimand. We accept it, and I consider the matter closed."
