the Star-Tribune staff | Posted: Thursday, March 6, 2008 12:00 am
Jim Boylen spoke and the Mountain West Conference responded.
The MWC issued the Utah men's basketball coach a public reprimand on Thursday "for his disparaging comments that publicly criticized a Conference member institution's head coach."
Various news outlets publicized Boylen's comments regarding Wyoming head coach Heath Schroyer following an altercation in a UW victory over the Utes last Saturday in Laramie.
The Cowboys finished off an eight-point victory with an alley-oop dunk as time expired, a play that set Boylen off.
He began shouting at Schroyer when the two shook hands in an altercation that included a handful of four-letter words.
"We wouldn't have done that," Boylen said afterwards. "We don't do that. We pull the ball out and respect our opponent."
Schroyer said afterwards that he was telling his players to pull the ball out in an effort to let time expire.
"It was kind of an instinct play, I believe; it was just one of those things," Schroyer said. "I have a lot of respect for Jim."
But for Boylen - whose Utes were dealt their fourth straight loss - the situation didn't end there.
Earlier this week the first-year head coach said he wanted an apology from Schroyer.
"When I asked Heath about it, he said, 'I was telling them to pull the ball out,'" Boylen told the Salt Lake Tribune at his weekly press conference Monday. "Well, he wasn't telling them to pull the ball out. We got it on film that he wasn't telling them to pull the ball out."
Boylen said his team "deserved an apology from him on that, and there was no remorse there and there was no respect for the game, and we don't believe in that here."