TCU's Zvonko Buljan was heckled for a reason.
Buljan's emotions flared up often in the Horned Frogs' 76-62 loss to the UNM men's basketball team Tuesday.
At the 9:06 first-half mark, Buljan jousted underneath with UNM's Will Brown.
Whatever Buljan said, he got a reaction out of Brown. Visibly annoyed, Brown gave Buljan a shove and was immediately T'd-up. For the remainder of the night, when the ball was in Buljan's hands, the boos of 14,777 people drowned out his dribbling.
"The second guy got caught, but the second guy always gets caught," head coach Steve Alford said. "Buljan did his thing most of the night, and Will was a freshman. He reacted to it. You can't make those plays. And that's a lesson he's got to learn. The most valuable lesson is sitting next to me."
Daniel Faris has learned that lesson all too well. That's why the senior quickly rushed to Brown's side and played mediator.
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"I just told Will to keep his head," Faris said. "I know I've been there before - getting technicals. It's just a learning experience, and from freshman to senior, you're always going to be learning. He can't make the same mistake that I did. I want him to learn from my mistakes, not from making his own mistakes."
Buljan stepped to the free-throw line and knocked down both, but not before raising his hands to the Pit crowd, challenging the boisterous bunch to make as much noise as they could.
Yes, Buljan was competitive - and temperamental.
Faris couldn't have known that.
Later in the half, Faris was setting a backscreen on Buljan. Whether it was accidental, Buljan appeared to snap his head back, headbutting the Lobos' center in the nose.
"He was just playing hard and he did a good job for his team tonight," Faris said.
That might have been the case had Buljan been able to better mask his emotions.
With the game effectively over and the Lobos up 75-62 with 17 seconds left, Buljan swiped Faris in the back of the head and was called for an intentional foul.
"In anything like that, you can't point the finger unless you take a look at yourself," Faris said. "That's some of my Christian principles. I'm not perfect. So, who am I to judge him?"
But he was perfect - from the free-throw line. On his way to a game-high 20 points, Faris went 12-for-12 from the charity stripe, marking only the sixth time in school history that such a feat has been achieved.
"That's what I love about college athletics," Alford said. "When Daniel Faris can go down in the UNM record book for foul shooting, that is just something that doesn't happen outside of college athletics."
He was perfect at the podium, too. Those Christian principles showed. Not once did he point the finger at Buljan. Some words, he said, are better left unspoken.
"He was doing anything he could to help his team win in a hostile environment," Faris said. "I can't say that I haven't tried to do something and got in an altercation. I'm the last person to judge him on that. I just realized that I'm at the point in my career where there's not that much time left. I can't get caught up in stupid things like that. It's not going to help my team win."
