If we had only lost 1-2 players I think we win this game.  One of the WRGW kids posted the rulebook and it looks like only Essence Brown should've been tossed.

GW Alum Abroad wrote:

Is there a video of this that can be seen online? Were only GW players tossed?

Should eventually be on ESPN+ but Daniel Frank’s tweet has the video https://twitter.com/n1a2v3y4/status/1599933404728156160

TCU lost 2 players. The reason GW lost more is it happened near our bench and the refs said our players left the bench to join the fight. In reality, almost everyone except maybe Essence Brown we’re trying to de-escalate.

Also the female ref closest to the fight runs away and lets things escalate more. If she had jumped in front of the TCU player none of this happens.

Last edited by GW0509 (12/05/2022 11:47 pm)

According to NCAA rule 10.4.8, players, or any team personnel, who leave the bench during a brawl are subject to an automatic ejection.  The exceptions are the head coach and one assistant, who can leave the bench to deescalate the situation.  (Digression - does the head coach designate an assistant coach before the game?). There are no exceptions for players trying to deescalate a situation

There was a similar situation in the Notre Dame - Northwestern game that happened near the Wildcats bench.  Two Northwestern players were ejected after leaving the bench.  Their motives were not an issue, and could be hard to interpret.

Players are probably told about the rule during the preseason.  That said, it's hard to blame a player for leaving the bench to help a teammate who seems to be in distress.

The NCAA had to do something about bench clearing brawls, but maybe there needs to be more discussion about automatic ejections.  The team whose bench is nearer to the brawl is at a disadvantage because events could spill over on to the bench and lead to more ejections for them.

I didn't see the brawl live, only from the tweet.  During the broadcast I saw during the second half, the brawl wasn't mentioned.  Neither game story from the schools mentioned the brawl.  According to the official play by play, TCU had 3 players disqualified to GW's 5.  I'm sure those broadcasters were as confused and confusing as everyone else.

Last edited by WMC (12/06/2022 9:35 am)

I normally don't like to blame refs whether GW is winning or losing but they were an embarrassment last night. As GW0509 mentioned, the female ref tried half-heartedly (which is a kind way to describe the effort) to break things up before just running away. If all three refs get in the middle to break things up, perhaps no ejections happen. There would probably be a double technical and then the game just plays on as normal, although there's no guarantee of that because Cravens was clearly looking to get into a fight. From no angle did the hair pulling look intentional. Cravens was by the way a two-time Big Ten Sportsmanship Award recipient at Nebraska before she came to TCU - hilarious! She is on her third school, having started at Eastern Washington.

The refs need to be held accountable for this game. I'm stunned that these kinds of plays aren't looked at by a separate group of people at the national stage who actually know the rules. It's easy to send footage to a centralized system. The refs can make the initial call for players who were actively in the fight, but I think for multiple ejections they shouldn't be making the final call. Also can someone tell me why TCU got to shoot 4 technical FTs while we only shot 2?

But it goes beyond that one moment in the game. It certainly felt like TCU was getting all the foul calls in the first half. It wasn't until later in the game where the fouls were being called a bit more evenly. Jump balls were being called within half a second when neither team had a chance to gain possession and when a call was made one ref would run to another to make sure they saw eye-to-eye on a call. I can only assume these refs were inexperienced.

Definitely think this game could have been won if we had more players available for the second half. I feel terrible for Nya Robertson, who was playing well from the start and looked better/quicker than TCU's guards. TCU did not look particularly impressive as they relied on free throws for much of their offensive production. Unfortunately, they were shooting above their average from there. The only thing they really did well was press effectively, granted it was against backups. Also the lettering on their uniforms was really ugly.

Hope the team has a good performance on Friday because they certainly deserve it. The remaining rotation did a phenomenal job keeping things close the rest of the game when it could have been a blowout.
 

I suspect some suspensions will be handed down after this. An ugly incident (and I am a fan of "old school" hockey). I have only seen the brief Twatter clips so I do not know if things were chippy before the fists started flying, but the refs should have been more on top of things and nipped this in the bud.
The TMZ is even covering it (probably the first time they have covered GW since that TV comedian was dating an undergrad...)
https://www.tmz.com/2022/12/06/tcu-george-washington-womens-basketball-wild-fistfight-court-eight-players-ejected/
 

Maybe there should be a rule about hair styles in a situation where there is a lot of contact like basketball. I'm surprised there are not more incidents like this. If you don't want your hair pulled, then tie it up for the game. Just inviting trouble.

GW Alum Abroad wrote:

Is there a video of this that can be seen online? Were only GW players tossed?

ESPN article has the full video from the broadcast Eight players ejected after TCU-George Washington skirmish (espn.com)

The game is on ESPN+ on my TV - thank you xAC.