DENVER — The most physically dominating player in the Mountain West Conference, BYU's 6-foot-11, 285-pound center Rafael Araujo, received a public reprimand by the Mountain West Conference for a controversial "punch" in Saturday's win over UNLV.
The decision came late Tuesday afternoon while BYU's basketball team was on a flight to Denver where the Cougars play Wyoming Thursday at 3:30 p.m., in the opening round of the MWC tournament.
The decision could have been a suspension for the Wyoming game for Araujo. Instead, Commissioner Craig Thompson decided to issue a reprimand — or put the big Brazilian senior on warning for violation of the conference's Sportsmanship Policy.
In other words: Probation.
The incident in question occurred with 11:40 left in Saturday's game when Araujo grabbed a rebound and made a move to score. Two Rebel players tried to prevent Araujo from scoring with physical play before a third, UNLV guard, Jerel Blassingame, wrapped up Araujo under the basket as J.K. Edwards held on to the BYU center's right leg.
Video replays showed Araujo swung his left arm upwards to free himself and hit Blassingame, who then fell backwards. Araujo then followed that move with a right fist swung toward Blassingame, and the punch, on film, appeared to make contact.
Three MWC officials reviewing film from behind the action decided Araujo would be assessed a technical foul and Blassingame would be given a common foul.
Another video clip of the action from the baseline came in to review by officials at conference headquarters after the incident.
"We support the decision by the commissioner," BYU coach Steve Cleveland said. "Our athletic director Val Hale, myself and the commissioner had a teleconference call on Monday and discussed the issue. We will now sit down with the athlete and inform him of the reprimand and what it means and talk about his actions and what this means."
"Araujo was assessed an intentional technical foul which, by NCAA rule, does not include ejection or subsequent disciplinary action. However, upon further review, the MWC determined that Araujo's actions were unduly provocative toward a student-athlete and, therefore, subject to the applicable provision of the league Sportsmanship Policy," read the MWC release announcing the decision.
"The Mountain West Conference will have no further comment regarding this matter."
Cleveland did not elaborate on the decision and did not make Araujo available for interviews Tuesday night.
E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com