Zona Zealots
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Arizona Wildcats Basketball: How to get blocked on Twitter by ASU Coach Hurley

By Shereen Rayan

Jan 3, 2016; Tempe, AZ, USA;Arizona State Sun Devils head coach Bobby Hurley looks on against the Arizona Wildcats during the second half at Wells-Fargo Arena. The Wildcats won 94-82. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 3, 2016; Tempe, AZ, USA;Arizona State Sun Devils head coach Bobby Hurley looks on against the Arizona Wildcats during the second half at Wells-Fargo Arena. The Wildcats won 94-82. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports /
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A new phenomenon has emerged in the Twitter-verse, Wildcats fans have been coach-blocked by ASU head coach Bobby Hurley.

The Arizona Wildcats basketball team took on their rivals the ASU Sun Devils last weekend and won their first Pac-12 conference game.

With about a minute to go in the game, ASU head coach Bobby Hurley threw a hissy fit after his player was called for a blocking foul he did not agree with and was T’d up and ejected from the game. It was Hurley’s second technical foul in the game.

Zona Zealots predicted this would be the start of a whole season of memes and jabs towards ASU from Arizona fans. More than one would normally expect.

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Like clockwork, Monday morning, Wildcats fans started tagging coach Hurley (@BobbyHurley11) in their tweets that included jabs at his temper tantrum and resulting ejection from the game rarely seen in college basketball.

Whoever is running or handling coach Hurley’s Twitter account, or Coach Hurley himself, started blocking Wildcats fans accounts. The fans who were successfully blocked began to tag Zona Zealots throughout the day.

It started as a kind of a challenge to Wildcats fans: could they Tweet a jab to Hurley’s account rude enough to get themselves blocked? What ensued was complete hilarity as well as unexpected.

To add to the fun, fans started new Twitter accounts to assist in the effort: @BlockMeBobby, @HurleyAngry and a mock account @ASUCoachHurley.

To add to the folklore of the Hurley ejection, No. 1 Kansas head coach Bill Self got T’d up in his game against No. 2 Oklahoma in which the Jayhawks won in triple overtime. This was just two days after the Arizona vs. Arizona State game. A fan of another team labelled Self’s outrage last night as ‘going full Bobby Hurley.’

The same referee, John Higgins, who worked the ASU vs. Arizona game, worked the Kansas vs. Oklahoma game. Self did not get ejected like Hurley; he knew well enough to walk back to his bench after he got the ‘T’. Maybe he had learned from Hurley what would happen if he didn’t.

NCAA referee John Higgins has refereed four final fours including the 2014 final four NCAA tournament games. He had given two technical fouls to Markel Brown during the 2014 Kansas vs. Oklahoma State in-season game won by Kansas, 80-78.

Here’s a sample of Wildcats fans Tweets before or after being blocked by the ASU head coach.

And then there were the Wildcats fans who felt left out, to be a true Wildcats fan, you had to be blocked by Bobby Hurley.

More wildcats: Arizona Wildcats Basketball: Bobby Hurley’s big mistake, Sean Miller’s brilliance

Our fellow Wildcats sports writers over at SB Nation, AZ Desert Swarm, called it an epidemic. Can’t argue, it did turn into an epidemic!

If you were blocked, consider it a privilege.

BearDown Arizona Wildcats fans! And prepare your Bobby Hurley fat heads or big heads for the next ASU game in Tucson.

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