Saturday’s rivalry matchup between Arizona and Arizona State ended on a messy note, with one headbutt exchanged and several handshakes refused.
After a back-and-forth battle between the schools, the Wildcats pulled away in the final minute of action. As the game started to look decided, the two top scorers got into it, with Arizona’s Caleb Love and Arizona State’s BJ Freeman exchanging some words.
That bit of chatter boiled over at some point, with Freeman delivering a headbutt to Love, and Love coming back to confront him before the two were separated.
After the incident was reviewed by officials, both Love and Freeman were assessed with technical fouls and ejected from the game.
Caleb Love has been ejected after a confrontation with Arizona State's BJ Freeman. pic.twitter.com/sQx2iMjblB
— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) February 1, 2025
But the drama was far from over. As the final seconds of action ticked away, Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley had already instructed his players to head back to the locker room, and waved off Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd near midcourt when he approached.
“If you were right near our bench, it was relentless, constant chatter from a couple of the Arizona players that was not being policed properly,” Hurley said when asked about the decision to walk off the court without shaking hands with his opposition. “It was done with no class in my opinion.”
Bobby Hurley said Arizona’s players were classless in their chatter before Freeman’s head butt of Love, leading to his decision to not shake hands to try to avoid an escalation. pic.twitter.com/63SQwXEXf6
— Chris Karpman (@ChrisKarpman) February 1, 2025
Arizona and Arizona State will face off again in early March near the conclusion of the regular season, so things between these two sides may heat up once again.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Caleb Love Headbutted, Then Ejected After Scuffle vs. Arizona State.
