Ohio State officials have reached out to police about threatening and insulting social media messages sophomore E.J. Liddell received following the Buckeyes’ NCAA Tournament loss on Friday.
Ohio State associate athletic director for communications Dan Wallenberg told The Associated Press he contacted police on Saturday morning about the threats Liddell received after the second-seeded Buckeyes were upset by No. 15 seed Oral Roberts 75-72 in overtime.
Liddell, who had 23 points and 14 rebounds in the game, revealed on his Twitter feed he received threatening messages. He posted images of the messages, including one that said “I hope you die I really do.” Other messages included racist insults.
“Honestly, what did I do to deserve this?” Liddell posted on Twitter. “I’m human.”
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said the language used against Liddell “is appalling and will not be tolerated.”
“To the few of you who have chosen to inappropriately rail against our players on social media, stop,” Smith said. “Hate and derision have no place in Buckeye Nation or in civil society. If you cross the line and threaten our players, you will be hearing from the authorities. That I promise you.
“I have nothing but love and respect for E.J. He epitomizes all that we hope for in our student-athletes.”
Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann also defended Liddell.
“Recent social media comments to E.J. Liddell, while not from or representative of Ohio State fans, are vile, dangerous and reflect the worst of humanity,” Holtmann posted on Twitter. “E.J. is an outstanding young man who had a tremendous sophomore season and he was instrumental in our team’s success. We will take all the necessary actions to address this immediately.”
Liddell said by revealing the threats and insults he was not “saying anything negative about Ohio State fans.”
“I love you all dearly and I’ve felt nothing but appreciated since the first day I stepped on campus,” he said.
Liddell said he was confused to be targeted by the messages.
“Comments don’t get to me but I just wanna know why,” he said. “I’ve never done anything to anyone in my life to be approached like this.”
STATE RIVALRY
The loyalties of some Illinois residents may be torn by Sunday’s second-round Midwest Regional game between top seed Illinois and eighth-seeded Loyola Chicago. That’s no problem for Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the 101-year-old chaplain for Loyola. Even so, the beloved centenarian hoops fan threw some shade at the NCAA selection committee for pairing state rivals so early.
“I’ve heard a lot of people say how come two schools from Illinois are meeting each other so soon and they have not so good feelings about it,” she said in a Zoom interview, adding she doesn’t often see state rivals from North Carolina or Florida in similar matchups.
Sister Jean taught at Chicago’s Mundelein College when Loyola beat Illinois in the 1963 NCAA Tournament. She said she was already a college basketball fan and watched on an 11-inch television when Loyola beat Cincinnati for the NCAA championship.
She said she remembers Loyola students walked down the street “yelling ‘We won! We won! We won!’ and came in the Mundelein residence hall and all the girls joined in.”
After the coronavirus pandemic kept fans away this season, Sister Jean said it meant more to attend Friday’s 71-60 win over Georgia Tech. She said she communicates by email and delivers pregame prayers by phone.
“I’m missing the guys all the time,” she said, adding “everybody was gone from campus” only a few days after the pandemic outbreak one year ago.
“It was very shocking to have all that happen,” she said.
JUST ANOTHER GYM
Oklahoma State guard Isaac Likekele isn’t exactly chasing the ghost of Jimmy Chitwood.
Asked about facing Oregon State in the second round on Sunday at Hinkle Fieldhouse — the backdrop for the climactic game in the popular basketball movie “Hoosiers” — the 21-year-old senior’s face went blank.
“I don’t even know where that is,” said Likekele, who was born 14 years after the movie’s release in 1986.
When the 1950s-set film starring Gene Hackman as the coach of fictional Hickory High and Maris Valainis as sharpshooting guard Jimmy Chitwood — who hit the state-title winning shot — came up, Likekele shrugged.
“Oh well, from the world aspect I guess it’s pretty important,” Likekele said. “From mine, that’s just another gym.”
Oklahoma State coach Mike Boyton isn’t surprised today’s players may not be familiar with the movie even with oodles of time to kill while being in the tournament bubble.
“I don’t know what they’re doing,” Boynton said. “Obviously they’re not watching basketball movies in their room. But I’m sure there’s some cool sitcoms or whatever on Netflix and I’m sure there’s plenty of video games to be played.”
BRACKET BUSTERS
Any fan holding an unblemished NCAA Tournament bracket has reason to brag. Friday’s first-round upsets already have blown up most brackets.
ESPN says after 16 games, there were 108 perfect brackets remaining from the 14.7 million entered before the tournament.
Ohio State’s loss was the biggest shock. ESPN says more than 95% of brackets — 13,992,289 — listed the Buckeyes beating Oral Roberts.
GATORS’ APPLEBY HEALING
Florida coach Mike White said guard Tyree Appleby “seems fine, seems normal” after suffering a head laceration on Friday and will be a game-time decision against Oral Roberts on Sunday.
Appleby was hit by an inadvertent elbow early in the second half while playing defense against Virginia Tech. He wobbled to the locker room and returned to the bench area in overtime to see the No. 7 seed Gators pull out a 75-70 victory.
White offered no update on suspended forward Omar Payne, who sat out the game because of an “in-house situation.” Payne was ejected from the SEC Tournament quarterfinals early in the second half for a flagrant-2 foul against Tennessee’s John Fulkerson, who suffered a concussion and facial fracture and did not play in Tennessee’s opening-round loss to Oregon State.
White declined to say if Payne’s suspension was related to elbowing Fulkerson.
AP Sports Writers Will Graves, Mark Long and Mitch Stacy contributed to this report.
More AP college basketball coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and updated bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket