Pat Kelsey calls thrown water bottle, delay during Creighton game 'unfortunate'

Late in the NCAA Tournament game between the Louisville Cardinals and Creighton Bluejays, emotions ran high. After a perceived missed call, Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey got hit with a technical and, in the subsequent stoppage, a fan threw a water bottle onto the court.

After the game, Kelsey addressed the situation. He explained that he was preoccupied and didn’t notice the bottle initially being thrown, but did share that he thought it was unfortunate that it had happened at all.

“I didn’t see it to be honest with you,” Pat Kelsey said. “I had just had gotten the technical and I’m talking to my team and they kept cleaning something up at the other end and I was like, what the crap is going on, and somebody said, [they] threw a water bottle on the court. It’s unfortunate. You know, but it happened.”

Some jackass threw a bottle of water on the floor pic.twitter.com/nYAOAroKW4

— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) March 20, 2025

This has been part of a trend in college sports where fans have thrown trash onto the field or playing surface, frustrated by calls. That includes some famous incidents from football, including the mustard bottle hitting the field at Neyland Stadium and when officials actually did overturn their call in Texas‘ game against Georgia last Fall. In basketball, liquid hitting the floor can be particularly dangerous with the chance players could slip on a hard surface increasing.

At the time of the incident between Louisville and Creighton, the Cardinals were trying to come from behind to avoid elimination in the NCAA Tournament. Creighton led 73-61 with 4:41 to play in the game and both teams made their way down the court when Pat Kelsey stepped onto the court and said some choice words to an official who hit him with the technical. That didn’t calm Kelsey down, though, and he would continue to get into the faces of officials until he was pulled back.

The technical gave Creighton free throws and, of course, possession of the ball. It was a difficult time to take a technical for Kelsey and Louisville, making for an even bigger deficit to overcome. Replay would show two players were tangled up rebounding on a free throw, which led Kelsey to step onto the floor arguing his case.

Clearly, at least one fan was also frustrated with the officiating. They would throw the water bottle, which was full and without a cap on, at the Creighton bench during the subsequent stoppage. That led to an extended delay in which the floor had to be dried off.

“That was a full bottle of water. That was very dangerous. And it went right over the Creighton bench,” Brian Anderson said on the broadcast, “I’ll tell you, whoever did that should never be allowed to come into this arena again…That’s a joke.”

The game ended in an 89-75 win for Creighton. The Bluejays advanced to take on the Auburn Tigers where they were unable to pull off an upset, ending their own NCAA Tournament run.