Northwestern Wildcats men’s basketball coach Chris Collins was ejected Wednesday night after losing his cool and colliding with an official while the game was still late against Purdue.
A series of wild events unfolded as a visibly furious Collins and the Wildcats (15-6) fell just short, falling 105-96 in overtime to the second-place Boilermakers (20-2). Began.
With about three seconds left on the clock, an angry Collins stormed onto the court and approached the umpire near the baseline. He completely angered them.
At that moment, cameras zoomed in on the action and showed the Wildcats coach being restrained by several players as the referee gave Collins a technical and ejected him with 1.7 seconds left.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Collins appears to be yelling while holding back one of his players, Brooks Bernhizer.
Later, another camera angle shows Collins still pointing his chin at the referee as he is pulled away by assistant coach Taylor Battle.
Despite his anger, the 49-year-old coach showed sportsmanship during the incident.
As Collins was leaving, he walked to the opposing team’s sideline to shake hands with Boilermakers head coach Matt Painter and star center Zach Eady.
Still fired up, Collins joins the crowd of excited Purdue fans cheering on the chaos in the room. mackey complex — He gestured to make his hand bigger.
It’s still unclear how Collins assaulted the lone umpire, but his coach noted after the game that he was frustrated with the free-throw margin.
Purdue made 46 free throws and Northwestern attempted eight.
“I’m not going to be the officiant. Our referees are great,” Collins said in the postgame press conference. “To be honest, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a box score like that. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a disparity like this.”
“But that’s what the game is called. You have to live with it,” he added.
