CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – After postgame handshakes with his Carolina foes, Syracuse coach Red Autry quickly made his way off the Smith Center court Monday night following his team’s 87-77 defeat to the 14th ranked Tar Heels. As he approached the tunnel to the Orange locker room, a spectator to his left leaned over the railing and shouted an obscenity directed specifically at the head coach.
Autry stopped, started to move slightly to his left towards the man, perhaps in his 30s adorned in a Syracuse hat and shirt, but was quickly escorted away and down the tunnel by the Smith Center security guard specifically tasked with escorting and securing the visiting head coach to/from the court during each home game.
There was no need for the incivility on the spectator’s part, not cool, and cooler heads made quick work of anything escalating, but it has been that kind of a season for the Orange, encapsulated in this ESPN Monday Nighter for the college hoops community to see…