In an article published on a pro-Creighton athletics website, basketball player Greg McDermott says he contacted UNC coach Roy Williams to let him know that his team wasn’t out to get North Carolina and certainly didn’t want to jeopardize the Tar Heels run to an NCAA title by hurting guard Kendall Marshall.<\/p>\n
“We feel awful that Kendall Marshall got hurt,” McDermott said Monday. “There was not any malicious intent on Ethan’s part. (Ethan Wragge) It was just a basketball play and, unfortunately, Kendall landed on his wrist wrong. I wanted to make sure Roy knew how we felt. We have tremendous respect for each other. He’s a good friend of mine, and I wanted to make sure he knew that we felt bad that it happened.” <\/p>\n
While it was a hard foul and one that the slow-footed, less athletic big man should have known better than to attempt it (in part because he was out of position on the play and because his team was down by 18 points at the time).<\/p>\n
Despite replays showing Grant Gibbs slapping at John Henson’s bad wrist and Gregory Echenique clobbering Tyler Zeller about the head and neck, McDermott said Creighton is not a dirty team.<\/p>\n
“Anyone that watched us play 35 games would know that we’re the farthest thing from being a physical, rough-housing team,” he said. “If anything, we’ve lacked physicality, but now we’re being made out to be the team that tried to bully North Carolina. The thing we feel bad about is the injury, because I would like to see North Carolina make a great run in this tournament.” <\/p>\n
The one part of McDermott’s explanations that seems suspect is his characterization that Gibbs’ wink to the bench after slapping Henson’s wrist was simply to acknowledge to the team that he had gotten under Henson’s skin as the Carolina player was called for a technical after confronting Gibbs.<\/p>\n
Even if that is true, how did Gibbs get under Henson’s skin? By slapping at his highly publicized bad wrist. McDermott, nor Gibbs, nor the Creighton coach are going to convince me that Gibbs wasn’t trying to hurt Henson. In football, it is common for guys to go after players who aren’t 100 percent. In basketball, while players will certainly be tested as to what they can and can’t do, it is not appropriate to intentionally go after an injury, especially with little protection available. Some would argue that it’s not appropriate in football either but football is supposed to be a physical game. Basketball, unfortunately, has evolved into more of a physical game but that’s not the history nor intention of basketball as opposed to football.<\/p>\n
While excusing Gibbs’ physical play, to his credit McDermott did call out his other teammate Echenique, saying that he should have been called for an intentional flagrant foul for his decking of Zeller.<\/p>\n