Albuquerque » New Mexico's Steve Alford had to be restrained by his assistant coaches, screaming as furiously at midcourt as he was at Utah's Jim Boylen. Boylen, meanwhile, shouted back, and gestured menacingly with his finger for Alford to come over to his side of the floor.
But while the heated confrontation during New Mexico's 77-71 victory over the Utes on Tuesday night made for great theatre in the deafening cauldron of The Pit, both coaches said it was all part of the game.
"He understands," Boylen said.
With the 18,081 fans roaring so loudly early in the second half that nobody could hear, Boylen had to run onto the floor to attract a referee's attention to call a timeout after back-to-back Lobo layups. But Alford erupted in anger, evidently because Boylen was not called for a technical foul, and Boylen reacted just as angrily.
"Not one official is looking at me," Boylen said. "The place is going nuts. What am I going to do? What do I do? … And the refs knew that. I had to get a timeout called and nobody is looking at me and the place is going nuts."
The men talked about the incident during the postgame handshake, and each said he understood the other. Boylen said it wasn't anything personal.
"He's competitive, I'm competitive," Alford agreed. "We're all trying to win a league championship. I think he's out on the floor; he thinks I'm out on the floor. He thinks I'm nuts; I think he's nuts. That's just being competitive. It's all part of the game, and it's all fun. His staff's holding him back, and my staff's holding me back, so it all turned out well."
