Iowa State is now my least favorite basketball team. Yes, they have officially soared to the top of the list that has been topped by the NBA's lame excuses of basketball teams called the Lakers and the Bulls for at least a decade. My least favorite college team before last night was probably St. Mary's, but now ISU definitely takes the cake.I don't think I've seen a dirtier basketball game in my life. This photo surfaced on Twitter last night and it says it all.
Some ISU fans are apparently claiming it was an accident and he was going for the ball. Ummm, the ball is at least 18 inches BELOW that. DeAndre Kane was looking right into Mika's eyes as he intentionally gauged them out-- there's photographic proof! And some people are claiming it was Mika's fault-- I can't even begin to imagine what anyone who thinks that must be drinking. Sorry my eyes fell into your fingers . . . yeah right!
Kane was ejected, and I definitely think he should miss just as many games as Eric Mika ends up missing because he has to wear an eye patch-- honestly he'll be lucky if he's not at least temporarily blind.
Mika was the only one who was able to stop Georges Niang, Iowa State's big power forward. After Mika was taken to the hospital, Niang scored 6 points in the final 3 minutes to seal the deal for the Cyclones. Yes, BYU missed way too many free throws. Yes, the refs made some bad calls. Yes, there were some dumb decisions made in the final few minutes-- I still can't figure out why in the world Nate Austin didn't call a time out when they had the ball with 3 seconds left . . . instead he dished the ball in bounds to a surprised and flustered Kyle Collinsworth who threw up a prayer that obviously didn't go down. But I really think BYU could have pulled it out if Mika had stayed in the game. It makes me sick . . .
Besides Eric Mika's injury, Haws and Carlino both got tackled at least once in the first half (and Carlino's incident didn't even incur a foul). Mika and Austin were sent sprawling on the court on the same play in the second half and didn't get up for awhile. At least 2 (or it might have been 3-- can't remember) of the ISU players fouled out, and one of them, Melvin Ejim, flipped the bird to the crowd as they left the arena. Real classy, guys, Real classy.
In the end, yes, I'm disappointed in the final score, but I'm way more concerned and angry that we may have lost one of our best players. The latest report is that Mika has scratched corneas and a lot of swelling, but we're not sure how bad it is yet. Praying that he's ok and won't have to miss many games because of it. We need him!!!
"Hmmm….we're up by five points in a close contest with a few minutes to go…I think I'll intentionally gouge this guy's eyes out on this play so I can jeopardize our lead with a flagrant foul which also gives the opponent the ball."
ReplyDeleteCall it a flagrant, and eject him from the game, fine. But dirty and intentional? Sorry, doesn't make any sense. He was nowhere near the ball, but it's much more likely he thought Mika was headed up for a shot and stuck his hands in hoping to come away with the ball than intentionally trying to remove him from the game.
Ejim displayed poor judgment with the flip off, for sure…you are right on that one. A tough, aggressive game by both teams, but I don't agree with your overall assessment of dirty play...
Tasha, I felt the same as you last night seeing how they treated our predominately freshman team. Our new Center Joel Embiid was sited for a Technical for his reaction to was was called a "hip check" that took him off his feet and he was on his way to the floor. Check out my KU FBook page; https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=629571867100562&id=227872800603806&comment_id=91541704&offset=0&total_comments=8¬if_t=feed_comment
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