A Flagrant 2 foul in college basketball involves any unsportsmanlike conduct and results in immediate disqualification of a player. Often times these calls are the byproduct of excessive contact made above the shoulders, severe contact during a dead ball situation, or in extreme cases, a punch (or punches) being thrown. It's time we add a new criteria: biting.
In No. 21 Houston's 64-62 loss to Cincinnati on Saturday, Cougars guard DeJon Jarreau may have become the first player in college basketball to be thrown out a game for biting an opponent. What appeared as an innocent attempt to scramble for the ball turned oddly aggressive. But during a scrum with Cincinnati's Keith Williams and Mamoudou Diarra, officials determined Jarreau bit down on Diarra.
At the time, Houston was clinging to a two-point road lead over the Bearcats. But that crumbled quick. The Cougars would go on to manage just five points over the final 6:16, while Cincy closed on a 9-5 run to beat the Cougars. It bumps Houston from atop the league standings and keeps Cincinnati one game back from Tulsa.
After the game Houston coach Kelvin Sampson disputed that Jarreau bit anyone.
"Let's address the bite," Sampson told reporters. "There wasn't a bite. There was an alleged bite. So, somebody said somebody bit. They go to the line. I just watched the film. I watched three (times) to make sure I was right, too. If you watch it once, you might be wrong. I watched it once. I watched it twice. I watched it three times, and I had my staff look. There wasn't a bite. There should have been a jump ball. It's our ball, our possession and we should have had a ball on the side.
"First of all, you don't ever make excuses. We were in control of the game up until the nine-minute mark. We had some unforced errors. But in terms of getting the crowd into it and bringing the crowd back, that was a big, big play there. When they called the technical. That was big. And then they threw him out of the game. Umm. And I watched it. There was no bite. There's just ... There was no bite."
One can assume the American Athletic Conference office will determine if Sampson's explanation has any teeth to it sometime this week.