Auburn and Houston squared off on Saturday night in an early-season matchup between two of college basketball’s best teams. But before announcers Rich Hollenberg and Fran Frischilla could talk about the game they were about to call, they first had to address the elephant in the room.
Auburn’s flight to Houston on Friday was quickly diverted back to Auburn after takeoff due to an altercation between players on the team. Before Saturday’s game got going on ESPNU, Hollenberg and Frischilla discussed what happened and noted that the two players involved did not come to Houston with the team.
“We now know today that it was reported two players on the Auburn team, Fran, were not making the trip back with the Tigers to take on the Houston Cougars. Those two players, freshman Jahki Howard and transfer student Ja’Heim Hudson,” Hollenberg said.
“This is a Final Four-level team,” Frischilla replied. “When you go from early November to early April, you have to eliminate as many distractions as possible. That was a distraction yesterday. Bruce Pearl dealt with it, both young men are home, they could be key parts of this season going forward but he did the right thing. They are short-handed tonight without them, for sure. But the team comes first and hopefully both young men will learn from this. You play on and it’s a tougher game now for Auburn going against a team like Houston tonight. Kudos to Bruce Pearl for dealing with it head-on.”
Fran Fraschilla and Rich Hollenberg addressed Auburn’s flight being diverted following an altercation between two players.
“Kudos to Bruce Pearl for dealing with it head-on.”
“As they say, message sent. It remains to be seen if the message was received.” pic.twitter.com/DJ1P2vPTpb
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 10, 2024
“As they say, message sent,” Hollenberg added. “It remains to be seen if the message was received by those two Auburn Tigers.”
If there was a distraction for Auburn, it didn’t show the court. The No. 11 ranked Tigers knocked off the No. 4 ranked Cougars 74-69.
[Photo Credit: ESPNU]
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