CINCINNATI, Ohio -- Millions of people saw it on CBS on Saturday afternoon. If Howard Stern speaks of it, given the current climate, he'll be fined by the FCC. Every man in the country will wince when he sees the highlights.
But strangely, almost no one involved would admit to much of anything -- least of all that DePaul's LeVar Seals sucker punched Cincinnati's Tony Bobbitt in a very sensitive male area during the Conference USA championship game.
 | |
| Tony Bobbitt writhes in pain after taking the controversial blow Saturday.(AP) |
That's where the subtle innuendos end. This we know: Bobbitt collapsed in a heap in front of his bench with 8:22 left in Cincinnati's 55-50 victory. His coach Bob Huggins went nuclear -- as did the 13,787 mostly Bearcats fans. The officials looked at a monitor. Seals was promptly ejected. Technicals were shot.
Then everybody got busy describing what they thought didn't happen.
"To me he was faking it," said Seals, a junior backup guard from Chicago and son of a minister.
"A guy did something, whatever it is he did I don't know," DePaul coach Dave Leitao said of his player. "It's not part of his or our character."
"What happened is no reflection on their program," Huggins said.
But what exactly did occur? The officials weren't around to explain. They were out the door and into a waiting van before the nets were cut down. DePaul officials were told the ejection was for a punch, which suggests Seals could be suspended for DePaul's first tournament game per the NCAA rulebook.
But during the postgame celebration, one Cincinnati fan yelled out what Seals had suggested and others were thinking: "Oscar nominee, Tony Bobbitt."
Nevertheless, Bobbitt did go, uh, nuts -- helping secure the Bearcats' second Conference USA Tournament title in three years. He scored 17 points, giving him 38 in the three games, and was named the tournament MVP.
 | |
| A defiant Tony Bobbitt flexes his muscles after sinking a clutch shot in his return to the court.(AP) |
"That's hard to do," he said. "But it made us a better team."
Otherwise, it has been the usual Huggins-Cincy sideshow. He started two players Saturday who had been kicked off the team earlier in the season. That tough love allows Huggins to call Bobbitt an "idiot" like he did after the March 6 victory over Memphis.
"When he says things, I tend to talk back, which I shouldn't," Bobbitt said at the time. "My attitude sucks right now. It ain't him; it's me."
Surprise! The senior from Daytona Beach, Fla., was one of those thrown off the team, which, for Huggins, is the equivalent of a lifetime achievement award.
"Bob Huggins is terrific and a master at his craft," said Leitao, whose team held Bobbitt to 1-for-8 shooting nine days ago in a 68-65 victory. "He coaches a certain way. You see him yelling and screaming at Tony Bobbitt in Chicago. Part of it is coaching. Today is the end result of his coaching."
Bobbitt's attitude and tongue both have sharpened. Whatever his level of play, the dude can certainly do one thing well -- talk smack. DePaul guard Drake Diener had to be separated from Bobbitt by referees in the first half before something ugly developed. During a lull in the action, Bobbitt started jawing with a DePaul assistant. After a big basket, he cupped his ear to the crowd begging for more.
"I had a couple of words to say, wow," Bobbitt said sarcastically. "If we're going to point fingers, we were both talking. I'm not going to quit talking. No disrespect to the coach (Leitao), but he called me some names he shouldn't have called me."
As for the punch, all Bobbitt said was: "He caught me."
No reason to elaborate. What Sears did with his fist, Bobbitt did with his game. Call it even.
Except, all this didn't occur in a vacuum. U.S. Bank Arena was anything but a neutral court. It was a shot of adrenaline that allowed the Bearcats to win three games in 40½ hours, improve their seed and go into the NCAAs on a huge roll.
Cincinnati was urged on by those fans, every other one of which seemingly had a beer in his or her fan. Luckily, that's where the beers stayed when Seals had to walk though to the locker room, through a gauntlet of nasty curses hurled from above the tunnel.
There obviously is a history between these two teams. Leitao said he warned the officials early in the game to take control with all the trash talk going back and forth.
They did until Seals' punch, or whatever you want to call it.
"This was exactly like a good NCAA Tournament game," Leitao said.
Good Lord, March is going to be good.
