This week in college basketball has seen a lot of unnecessary anger. On Sunday night, a UCLA freshman was ejected from a game against Utah for elbowing another player in the face. Tuesday showed UConn coach Dan Hurley threatening to knock out a member of Creighton's student section. And Wednesday evening had an Alabama player appearing to throw an unnecessarily vicious elbow at an opposing player — a move that the referees completely missed.
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The play in question came during the first half of the Southeastern Conference matchup between Alabama and Florida. It occurred while Crimson Tide forward Mohamed Wague and Gators freshman forward Alex Condon were chasing a loose ball after a missed 3-point attempt by Alabama.
After Condon — despite taking an inadvertent knee to the temple during the dive — secured the loose ball, Wague decided to throw what looked like an intentional elbow to the back of Condon's head.
Hey @SEC can we uhhhhhh maybe look at the Alabama player throwing a full PEOPLE’S ELBOW down onto the head of Alex Condon??????? pic.twitter.com/vRhzHRVxcn
— Lucas Dolengowski (@LDolengowski) February 22, 2024
There was a foul called on the play — but it was called on Condon.
Somehow, the SEC referees managed to miss the dirty blow that Wague threw and instead called a foul on Condon for the dive.
It was a baffling missed call that could have changed the game's trajectory, considering Alabama ended up winning the tightly contested game 98-93.
Not only should Wague probably have been ejected for this blatant elbow strike, but Florida also should have been given two free throws and possession of the ball afterward. That shift alone could have facilitated a 5-point turnaround for Florida.
Florida coach Todd Golden didn't address this particular missed call during his postgame press conference but did say, "There were some 50-50 things down the stretch that didn't go our way."
While we haven't heard anything from NCAA, SEC, Alabama or the game's referees in regard to the missed call, the fact that it's making waves on social media guarantees that officials are aware that the elbow happened.
There's nothing that can be done about it now, of course. But the NCAA would be wise to address this most recent violent play in some capacity — if only to avert any other potential violence that could occur in college basketball this week.
