There is absolutely no reason this should ever happen, period. On Saturday night, Rick Barnes and the Tennessee men's basketball team were able to post a thrilling 66-64 win over Illinois on the road. Yup, No. 1 UT is now 10-0 on the season.
However, after Jordan Gainey was able to break countless Illinois hearts with his buzzer-beater, there was an unfortunate incident. With the Tennessee players celebrating after the memorable bucket, a new video has surfaced and you can clearly see a fan who was courtside shoving Lanier. Again, this should never happen:
An Illinois fan shoving Lanier after the loss pic.twitter.com/dGchUCFd6u
— CHANNEL TN (@CHANNEL_TN_) December 15, 2024
Chaz Lanier was shoved by an Illinois fan after Tennessee's buzzer-beater
As you can see in the clip, Lanier and his teammates were understandably going wild after they won in such dramatic fashion. However, the fact that the Illinois fan decided to put his hands on Lanier fully crossed the line.
Tennessee supporters are furious about this and we don't blame them. Lanier walked off the court and he was the bigger man here, which was great to see. In the end, the Vols were able to capture win No. 10 on the season, keeping the undefeated campaign going.
It's been a terrific start to the season for Tennessee and Lanier has been downright sensational. He leads the Vols with his 18.9 points per game. It feels like whenever Barnes has needed someone to step in and drill a shot for him in a key situation, Lanier is there to deliver.
With loads of primetime SEC games on the way, Lanier is going to be counted on to keep operating at a high level for this squad. Tennessee has hopes of going on a deep postseason run and they'll need Lanier at his best to make that happen. As for this negative occurrence with the Illinois fan, let's hope nothing else like this goes down in 2024-25.