The BYU Cougars upset the 19th-ranked Arizona Wildcats on Saturday night, but that wasn’t the only story to come out of Tucson.
Arizona issued an apology on Sunday morning after Wildcat fans aimed an inappropriate chant at the Cougar players.
ESPN.com’s Myron Medcalf reported the story Sunday.
“Per video of the incident, Wildcats fans chanted an expletive and ‘Mormons’ toward BYU, the flagship school of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as players exited the floor,” Medcalf wrote. “It capped a chaotic finish that included controversial foul calls and irate coaches and players.
Medcalf cited Arizona athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois, who said, “Following tonight’s men’s basketball game, it was brought to our attention that an unacceptable chant occurred. On behalf of the University of Arizona Athletic Department, we apologize to BYU, their student-athletes, coaches and fans. The chant is not reflective of who we are and should not have happened.”
The incident affected a wild finish in the game that gave way to BYU‘s upset win over the Wildcats. The Big 12 is only ramping up in competitiveness as March is quickly approaching. But as we’ve seen, sometimes things end up spilling over.
Fortunately, it seems like everyone worked quickly here to put out the fire.
Hopefully, in the future, incidents like these at Arizona can be avoided.
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022