The Big 12 Conference is investigating a postgame incident involving a West Virginia player who allegedly punched a fan during the court-storming that followed No. 8 Texas Tech's win over No. 2 West Virginia in Lubbock, Texas, on Saturday.
Multiple videos circulating on social media after the game appear to show a West Virginia player wearing No. 21 -- assigned to junior college transfer Wesley Harris per the school's official roster -- throw a punch at someone participating in the postgame court-storming. Despite requests, neither school or conference would confirm the name of the player involved.
"The Conference is following the protocols established in its Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct policy," the league said in a statement on Sunday.
Added West Virginia through a separate statement: "We have been in contact with the Big 12 Conference and Texas Tech and are gathering information regarding yesterday's court-storming in Lubbock."
And Texas Tech officials said they've sent "all relevant information" to the Big 12.
Officials from Texas Tech, West Virginia and the Big 12 refused to confirm the identity of the player involved.
The incident followed a significant win for Chris Beard and Texas Tech, a team with wins over WVU and Kansas this season.
In recent years, multiple Power Five leagues have been vocal about their concerns over court-storming and created new precautionary policies to address them. Bob Bowlsby, Big 12 commissioner, instituted a new policy in 2015 that grants him broad power to punish schools that fail to prevent fans from storming the court after upsets by fining them or even removing home games from future conference schedules.
Earlier that year, Bill Self and his players got trapped in a court storm after a Kansas loss at rival Kansas State. A Kansas State fan bumped Jamari Traylor in the postgame scrum.
"We are certainly most interested in the safety of our participants and would include home team, visiting team, officials, table crew and the like," Bowlsby said then. "And we have pretty good video evidence of all our big events so we can review them."
Four years ago, Texas Tech was at the center of another incident involving a fan.
In February 2014, Oklahoma State star Marcus Smart pushed a fan during a game against the Red Raiders. He was suspended for three games by the Cowboys. At the time, the Big 12 praised Oklahoma State for following the school's sportsmanship policy.
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