![During an Ohio Valley Conference Tournament quarterfinal men's college basketball game between Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and Tennessee-Martin on Thursday night, three players ended up being ejected after Cougars forward DeeJuan Pruitt absolutely sucker punched Skyhawks forward Rifen Miguel right in the face. [Twitter/Screenshot/Public — @mid_madness]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/fotor_2023-3-3_8_32_43-e1677850411967.jpg "During an Ohio Valley Conference Tournament quarterfinal men's college basketball game between Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and Tennessee-Martin on Thursday night, three players ended up being ejected after Cougars forward DeeJuan Pruitt absolutely sucker punched Skyhawks forward Rifen Miguel right in the face. [Twitter/Screenshot/Public — @mid_madness]")
Totally uncalled for.
During an Ohio Valley Conference Tournament quarterfinal men’s college basketball game between Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and Tennessee-Martin on Thursday night, three players ended up being ejected. Cougars forward DeeJuan Pruitt absolutely sucker punched Skyhawks forward Rifen Miguel right in the face.
The scuffle broke out following Pruitt’s punch to Miguel. Both Pruitt and Miguel were ejected, as well as Tennessee-Martin’s Jalen Myers.
After the smash, Myers appeared to punch back at Pruitt to defend his teammate and Miguel would also chase after the retreating Cougar.
The punch from Pruitt came around the four-minute mark as they were walking up the court together face to face, with Miguel playing mind games with his opponent after a bucket from Southern Illinois-Edwardsville.
Kick this kid off the team. Immediately. pic.twitter.com/BPh4HoXqmV
— Mid-Major Madness (@mid_madness) March 3, 2023
And apparently, this also caused parents to get into fights in the stands:
We have parents fighting in the stands. I would do the same if that was my kid.
— Mid-Major Madness (@mid_madness) March 3, 2023
I don’t know if I would kick Pruitt off the team or not, but some kind of punishment certainly needs to be handed down on that kid (and I’m talking about more than just an ejection), and I’m sure it will.
Look, I get that Rifen Miguel was being a little bit of an asshole with the mind games, but at the same time, that’s a part of sports. And the fact that Pruitt responded with a punch tells me that the mind games were working. It actually reminds me of when Reggie Miller was playing mind games with Michael Jordan and made the GOAT lose his marbles.
Can’t be falling for mind games … it’ll just have you looking foolish while waiting for punishment. (RELATED: ‘Smashed!’: Auburn’s Bruce Pearl Goes On Two Separate (And Hilarious) Temper Tantrums In The Same Awkward Interview)
Just ask DeeJuan Pruitt, who is obviously no Michael Jordan.