On Tuesday night and throughout Wednesday, the talk of college basketball was the Kansas-Kansas State brawl. In the waning seconds of Kansas’ 81-60 victory in Allen Fieldhouse,all hell broke loose. DaJuan Howard stole the ball from Kansas forward Silvio De Sousa, who chased down Howard to block his layup. The rest is history:
De Sousa didn’t help with the incident after standing over Howard and staring him down as time expired. Both sides shoved each other and threw punches. The situation escalated further when De Sousa was pushed into the disabled section, prompting him to come back at the Kansas State players. Things continued to spill over into the crowd and the lasting visual from the incident will be De Sousa going ECW and holding a stool above his head as a potential weapon. He dropped the stool before things got even more out of hand when he thought better of it.
What’s Next For Kansas Basketball?
What was supposed to be a simple home win for Kansas over their rival turned into something that could potentially jeopardize their season. De Sousa received a 12-game suspension from the Big 12 in addition to being suspended indefinitely by Bill Self. De Sousa was averaging 2.6 points and 2.8 rebounds per game. He will be eligible to return in the season finale before going into postseason play. For a team that is in the running for a potential number one seed, the loss of De Sousa, as well as David McCormack (who will serve a two game suspension), will potentially impact their seeding and NCAA tournament chances.
For Kansas State, James Love was suspended eight games and teammate Antonio Gordon will serve a three game suspension. At 8-10 it is not looking likely that the Wildcats will be heading to the NCAA tournament this season.
Regardless of the aftermath, this Kansas-Kansas State brawl will be a moment that is remembered from the 2020 season.