Shane Dale caught the hand sign that shook the NCAA basketball world last night, a two-finger salute by Torian Graham towards Arizona Basketball’s student section the ZonaZoo.
The ZonaZoo was in heightened alert mode last night as the students had just returned for the Spring semester in the days before the huge rivalry game between their Arizona Basketball team and ASU.
The ZonaZoo came prepared, complete with Bobby Hurley fat heads and planned antagonistic chants such as ‘Bobby Bobby’ used each time the coach started yelling or getting upset with the referees. What they didn’t predict is that Torian Graham was going to give it back to them.
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It worked, all of it. But I believe the chants actually helped Hurley to calm down and avoid another ejection. The headphones he wore pregame did the trick as well.
In a night filled with chants aimed towards ASU head coach Bobby Hurley (Bobby! Bobby! and Bye Bye Bobby!), one Sun Devil shot back, and his name is Torian Graham.
Arizona beat ASU decisively 91-75 on Thursday night lifting them to be ranked the No. 1 team in the Pac-12 if only for a moment. But what are most people and the media talking about today? Not the win, they are talking about the double-birdy flip from ASU’s Torian Graham towards the ZonaZoo after warm ups on his way to the locker room as shared by ABC’s Shane Dale in a tweet.
Graham tweeted an apology to his own school for his actions, then attributed his reaction to “racial slurs” allegedly thrown at him from the Arizona Students. If you want Shane Dales video carefully, the students who are closest to Graham seem diverse.
We have asked fans and others if there is any proof of these racial slurs being shouted out from the student section, and no one has found any evidence.
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“I apologies for my actions. There was racial slurs said, and I didn’t react the right way as I should. My apologies to the ASU program.”
Our staff quickly jumped all over the tweet, not because of what was said, but more because of the grammar used. For both of those reasons, and maybe because there were no racial slurs thrown (we wait for proof and investigation), the infamous Torian Tweet was deleted.
Arizona Men’s Basketball SID Matt Ensor told ESPN via text (also reported by Bruce Pascoe), “We are looking into it. Once we’ve had a chance to gather the facts, we’ll determine our course of action.” I think if there is proof of racial slurs being thrown out, those students should be held accountable, and that is not acceptable under any circumstances. Fans have been banned from Arena’s in the past several years for doing just that.
This will probably blow over because there is no proof on either side. I would just see this as a typical reaction to being razzed knowing you are probably going to be losing to your rival and be embarrassed.
1st this is McKale and other fans would not stand for this 2nd the picture tells the story, everyone was shocked he flipped off
— BT (@AZWildcat4Life) January 13, 2017
The funniest part of all this is the descriptions of Torin’s actions by the media such as:
- Torian Graham let’s the ZonaZoo know they are number 1 – Shane Dale ABC15
- Graham extends his middle fingers toward booing Arizona fans seated nearby before he enters the tunnel – Myron Medcalf, ESPN Staff Writer
- One thing led to another and Graham was middle fingering – Joe Kinsey, Busted Coverage
- They are talking about the double-birdy flip from ASU’s Torian Graham – Shereen Rayan, Zona Zealots
- He flashed a rude hand gesture at UA students while walking off the McKale Center floor – Bruce Pascoe, Arizona Daily Star
- Arizona State’s Torian Graham flipped off the Arizona crowd before the rivalry game Thursday night – Jordan Heck, Sporting News
- He told some Wildcats fans what he really thought of them with a double-bird salute – Tom Ley, Deadspin
I agree with Shane…great job Mr. Dale!
Graham came to Tempe as a transfer from Buffalo. He sat out last season when coach Bobby Hurley was hired. He scored 18 points against Arizona.
Here is more video:
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Let’s just revel in it…we frustrated the ASU team and coach, they lost, Arizona won, and we can smile for a long time about this whole night! BearDown Arizona and brace yourselves for the next game in Tempe! Everyone buy tickets, we want to hear Bobby chants!