Kansas Basketball: Examining the aftermath of Kansas-Kansas State brawl
By Bryan Mauro
Kansas Basketball was involved in an ugly brawl against rival Kansas State. What do you make of the aftermath going forward for the players involved?
Kansas Basketball has had quite a season already. In case you missed it, let’s provide a quick reset. The Jayhawks have been implicated in the NCAA report as being a team that utilizes “dirty” recruiting tactics. Many have called them a classless program, especially after the Snoop Dogg fiasco during their midnight madness event.
No matter your feeling on the Jayhawks a few things remain constant with the program. They win and win a lot. Bill Self is still one of the most respected coaches in the game. Kansas is one of the premier programs in the country and nothing is going to change that. Their fans are rabid and the fans who don’t like them can make a living on their hatred of the program.
Those individuals who hate the program have some more gasoline for their fire, especially after the last 24 hours. There is no way anyone who follows the sport or even watches it casually could have missed what happened at the end of the Kansas and Kansas State game last night. With a few seconds left of the clock with the Wildcats down by 21 points, they stole the ball and went to try to dunk the basketball. Enigma Silvio De Sousa decided he was not going to let happen and had a rejection for the ages, stood over the top of the player and then essentially got jumped by the entire Kansas State team.
What happened afterward was total chaos. Antonio Gordon from Kansas State pushed De Sousa and may have thrown the first punch, after that the fight went into the crowd of spectators. De Sousa lost it and was seen picking up a chair and hoisted it over his head before finally dropping the chair. Punches were thrown by the players, and it is hard to make out who threw the punches but let’s leave that to Kansas and Kansas State to determine that.
De Sousa has since been suspended indefinitely by Kansas while the school and the Big 12 conduct their investigation into the fight. The big man is not going to see the floor at all during that time. At the time of this writing, no one else involved has been suspended for their actions during the brawl. It is expected that Kansas State and Kansas both have additional players suspended.