Two independent sources we spoke with claim that the Big East coach who threw fists with one of his assistant coaches was Seton Hall’s Bobby Gonzalez. The sources say that on February 17th, as Seton Hall was headed to the locker room for halftime, trailing West Virginia 45-30, an agitated Gonzalez went “nose-to-nose” with an assistant coach. (We have emailed two assistant coaches about this, but have not heard back and thus we’re going to hold off posting a name. We don’t expect to get a response, but if we do, we’ll update the post.) This is where our sources disagree - one source claims it was a very heated argument and other assistants intervened before punches were thrown; the other source claims punches were thrown (backing up Forde’s blind item). Apparently, there were multiple witnesses, including West Virginia coach Bob Huggins.

Gonzalez has one of those jocular personalities and seems prone to extreme personality swings. So will the New York-New Jersey media brush this off as Crazy Bobby being Crazy, or is it worth reporting out? It’s been a little more than seven years since Seton Hall’s Eddie Griffin popped teammate Ty Shine in the face during a locker room squabble, and that was a big deal … but we kind of doubt the same will happen here because the media, for whatever reason, loves Bobby Gonzalez and because (presumably) no assistant coaches were sporting a shiner after the altercation. Bobby G is one of those “cool coaches” who knows how to play the media game - unlike previous Pirate coaches Tommy I’m-better-than-you-are Amaker and aloof Louis Orr.

Gonzalez has Seton Hall reasonably close to the NCAA tournament bubble (even though it really has no shot besides winning the Big East tournament), and wins over Louisville and Virginia are impressive. Perhaps more importantly, they’ll be in the Garden for the Big East tournament. The Star-Ledger seems to cover Seton Hall relatively closely, so it’ll be interesting if this story has any legs. The guess is no.

[UPDATE: A reader points out that one of the Big East message boards is discussing this situation. And so is a Seton Hall message board.]

[UPDATE II: Michael David Smith at Fanhouse spoke to someone in the SHU athletic department who didn't deny the story, but didn't confirm it, either.]