Arkansas apologizes for incident between men's basketball staffer, KY Kernel journalist

A viral video following Arkansas’ SEC Tournament loss to Texas A&M on Friday night has caused quite a stir on social media.

Shortly after the Razorbacks’ were knocked out of the quarterfinals by the Aggies, 67-61, an incident was caught on camera that appears to show an Arkansas men’s basketball staff member intentionally knocking a phone out of the hand of Kentucky Kernel (the University of Kentucky’s independent student newspaper) photojournalist, Jack Weaver, who posted the video to his Twitter account. The three-second clip quickly went viral and has garnered over 6.3 million views on the platform as of Saturday afternoon.

The Arkansas staff member involved was soon identified as Riley Hall, who is in his seventh season as the program’s Director of Internal Operations. Hall got his start with the Hogs in 2016 as a student manager before working his way up the ranks. But he appeared to lose his professional cool in the aftermath of a tough loss.

Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman left the court in a rage of f-bombs after losing to Texas A&M in the #SECMBB Tournament. His assistant then grabbed my phone and threw it at the ground. @KYKernelSports pic.twitter.com/xRiX7O7dAN

— Jack Weaver (@jack_weaver_) March 11, 2023

The Kentucky Kernel released a statement later that night condemning the actions by Hall.

“The Kentucky Kernel is appalled by the actions of the Arkansas mens basketball program. (Jack Weaver) always embodies professionalism on the job and no journalist, especially a student journalist, should be subjected to violence for simply doing their job.”

Not even 24 hours later, the situation took another step as Arkansas’ Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics, Hunter Yurachek, released a statement of his own, offering an apology to the Kentucky Kernel and Weaver on behalf of Hall and Arkansas men’s basketball.

“I have visited with Riley Hall, a member of our men’s basketball support staff, and others who personally observed an interaction between Mr. Hall and a reporter following our game Friday night at the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament. During our conversation, Mr. Hall expressed his regret that while leaving the floor his engagement inadvertently resulted in knocking down the reporter’s cell phone from his hand.

“While, based on our discussion, I do not believe there was malicious intent, I have addressed the issue with Mr. Hall and he agrees his actions were not appropriate or reflective of our program. On behalf of Mr. Hall and our program, I want to offer an apology to the reporter impacted by these actions.”

pic.twitter.com/9s0MLuqoav

— Hunter Yurachek (@HunterYurachek) March 11, 2023

The lesson in all of this? Just keep your hands to yourself.