Alabama coach Avery Johnson and Minnesota coach Richard Pitino were left scratching their heads in Saturday’s postgame discussion with reporters while addressing the bizarre series of events that transpired in their college basketball game. 

Both coaches agreed there was nothing usual about the 15th-ranked Gophers’ 89-84 win against the Tide. After Alabama’s entire bench was ejected following an intense brawl, Johnson eventually was left with but three players against Minnesota’s five for the final 10 minutes. 

Asked if he’s ever experienced something similar in all of his NBA playing and coaching days, Johnson shook his head and answered, “No, I haven’t. That’s a new one right there.”

“I’ve never ever seen that in my life. Never,” Pitino said. “We don’t practice a lot of 5-on-3 offense, so that one’s on me.”

Surprisingly, Alabama’s three players — Collin Sexton, Galin Smith and Riley Norris — not only held their own, but outscored Minnesota’s five players 26-16 and nearly staged an improbable upset. They cut the deficit to just three with 1:32 remaining.

“That was one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever been a part of,” Minnesota’s Jordan Murphy said after the game. 

Alabama’s Sexton was spectacular in the losing effort, finishing with 40 points on 12-for-22 shooting.

“Collin Sexton could be a single team just by himself,” Pitino said. “He’s that good. Obviously, that’s just absurd, the whole experience. … We were playing really good until it got wacky.”

“We fought to the very end,” Johnson said. “There was no surrender in our team. That’s the bright spot in today’s game.”

The brawl unfolded after Sexton and Minnesota’s Nate Mason started jawing, leading to both players drawing technical fouls.

Mason was eventually ejected after he received another technical. Angry at the officials and defending Mason, Pitino then drew a technical foul.

Soon thereafter, Minnesota’s Dupree McBrayer and Alabama’s Dazon Ingram started shoving each other after a fiery play, which led to both teams getting into an even bigger shoving match in which players from Alabama’s bench stormed onto the floor. 

After the officials were able to put an end to the chaos, they decided to eject ‘Bama’s entire bench, although the Gophers did not shoot free throws. 

The referees told a pool reporter: “By rule, whenever a potential situation occurs on the court, no player may leave the bench area. If they do leave the bench area and don’t participate in the altercation that’s going on then they are ejected from this contest and there’s no further penalty, which is what happened. They all came onto the court. We went to the monitor and reviewed all of that. Based on the views that were given us it showed all of their players on the bench, came off the bench onto the court. The views we were given we didn’t see anyone from the Minnesota bench come onto the floor.”

With only five players left immediately following the brawl, Ingram fouled out with 11:37 left, before John Petty suffered a game-ending injury at the 10:41-minute mark — leaving the Tide with just three players. According to NCAA rules, Alabama could have played with one player (say, Sexton) against five, if officials deemed a win possible. 

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