Brian Anderson and Jim Jackson might be used to raucous college basketball crowds during the NCAA Tournament, but they draw a line at throwing water bottles.
Round one of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament is officially under way and while Creighton beat Louisville to kick off Thursday’s slate of games, the win may have been overshadowed by an unruly bottle of water. Late in the second half, Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey was called for a technical foul, and during the break in action, a bottle of water landed on the court. If you only heard the reactions from Anderson and Jackson, who were on the call for CBS, you may have thought there was an actual missile being launched onto the court.
Brian Anderson and Jim Jackson on the Creighton-Louisville CBS call with an ugly scene in Lexington.
Louisville HC Pat Kelsey was called for a technical foul and someone threw a full water bottle on the floor. #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/KGXMmWCT7R
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 20, 2025
“Oh come on, come on,” Jackson said with immediate disgust after witnessing the incident. “Somebody threw a bottle of water on the floor. Unnecessary. Come on now.”
“There’s gonna be a clean up here,” Anderson chimed in. “That was a full bottle of water. That was very dangerous. And it went right over the Creighton bench. I’ll tell ya, whoever did that should never be allowed to come in this arena again.”
Jackson then confirmed police were on their way into the crowd to find the perpetrator, while noting players on either side could have been harmed by the water bottle.
“That could have done some real damage,” Anderson reiterated after watching a replay of the incident. “That was a full water bottle, as is evidenced by the clean-up that is still ongoing right now. Water all over this side of the floor.”
Maybe this is why CBS and TNT Sports use Charles Barkley for their March Madness coverage. Because Barkley has repeatedly said unruly fans should be dealt with by letting players beat them up in center court for five minutes. And from the sounds of their reactions, it seems like Anderson and Jackson might agree.
The fan who tossed the water bottle onto the court absolutely deserved to be kicked out of the arena immediately and barred from returning. And there are certainly scenarios where a full water bottle launched from the crowd could do real damage to a person. But we all saw the replay of this one. The person haphazardly tossed a water bottle onto the court during a break in the action where no one was standing.
Did the person intend to cause a disruption and scene? Sure, it was stupid. And for that, kick them out of the arena. But after watching the replay, does it seem like any coach or player was put in a dangerous situation? No.
Thankfully, everyone survived the water bottle attack and play was able to be resumed as Creighton advanced to the Round of 32. And after overcoming the great water bottle incident of 2025, it seems like there might be no adversity that can get in Creighton’s way this tournament.
