Karsen Barnhart’s basketball team involved in fight

Submitted by hillbillyblue on December 22nd, 2018 at 2:32 PM

nofunforfu

December 22nd, 2018 at 2:41 PM ^

Funny you say that. WWMT has video of the fight and you can see a large Paw Paw player book it down the court and “pancake” a South Haven player when the fighting starts. I don’t know if it was him, but he was my first thought when I saw it.

LKLIII

December 22nd, 2018 at 3:17 PM ^

It does look like he was #42.  Seems to me it basically went like this:

1)  Single smaller player in red (Paw Paw player) maybe did a hard foul under the basket.  He's standing there as a player wearing white is on the ground.

2)  A bigger player on the white team gives the smaller Paw Paw player a shove clearly after the whistle was blown.  Then he shoves the smaller Paw Paw player a second time. 

3)  The smaller Paw Paw player in red does a bit of a half-assed shove back on the bigger player in white, at which point it seems to me it's clearly going south.

4)  The bigger player in white starts to go after the smaller Paw Paw player in red for the 3rd time (now more aggessively).  Due to the size & posture of the player in white, it looks like to me the smaller Paw Paw player in red is about to get his ass beaten pretty badly.

5)  As the bigger player in white presumably is about to really lace into the smaller Paw Paw player in red, Karsen comes flying down the court & uses his body & momentum to knock the "bigger" (but now comically out-sized) away from Karsen's much smaller Paw Paw team mate wearing red.  But due to his size/speed, he basically "de-cleats" the kid a foot or so off the ground and pancakes him. 

6)  All hell breaks loose from there, as the smaller/slower kids from both teams then enter the chaos.

 

I have no idea what transpires after that and don't know what Karsen did or didn't do.  But based on the early unfolding of the fight, it looks to me like he was rushing in to prevent his much smaller teammate from getting the tar beaten out of him by the bigger kid.  But due to his own size & momentum, basically blew up the would-be "bigger" aggressor.

 

EDIT:  After looking at the video more closely, you can see a slightly bigger Paw Paw team mate start to help defend his much smaller team mate from the bigger kid in white BEFORE Karsen arrives.  Clearly Karsen started running down to help out his small team mate first, but by the time he arrived that other Paw Paw player was already stepping up to the kid in the white uniform to defend the smallest Paw Paw player.  The player in white was STILL bigger than the 2nd Paw Paw player, but the size disparity wasn't quite as huge.  Then Karsen pancakes the original player wearing white.  So basically:     

White Jersey >>> 1st RedJersey......White Jersey remains aggressive; then

White Jersey > 2nd Red Jersey...... White Jersey seems to remain a threat, but less so; then

3rd Red Jersey (Karsen) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> White Jersey is now pancaked & no longer a threat.

Chaos ensues.

 

Video LINK:

https://wwmt.com/news/local/brawl-breaks-out-on-court-during-high-school-basketball-game-in-south-haven

swalburn

December 22nd, 2018 at 2:43 PM ^

South Haven isn't my favorite place.  It has nice tourist part near beach but also has a whole other section which is lousy.  I grew up down in that County and did my internship in that office.  I loved it when they sent me to the South Haven office to "work" but had so many cases from the the Walmart in South Haven.  Walmart keeps many people in law enforcement employed single handedly.

In reply to by maize-blue

uofm42

December 22nd, 2018 at 3:09 PM ^

Nice if nothing further comes of this like assault charges. I live in south haven and they are discussing this especially since he came all the way across the floor without anything physically being done to him before he makes contact. 

LKLIII

December 22nd, 2018 at 3:24 PM ^

He was coming in to prevent a much "bigger" (relatively) kid on the white team from curb stomping his much smaller Paw Paw teammate.  Any scrutiny would involve whether he should have slowed down or used less force, but it's clear to me that if Karsen hadn't done what he did, that other player in white would have started beating the tar out of Karsen's much smaller team mate.

northernmich

December 22nd, 2018 at 3:30 PM ^

Right, but they are gonna argue that he could have just gotten between the two and held/shielded his teammate away from the kid in white. He literally ran full speed and threw his entire body into him and crushed him. I’m not saying what he did is wrong, but they can turn this whole thing on him because he intervened when the kid in white was really just pushing a kid. We can’t really assume that the kid in white intended on kicking the Paw Paw kid’s ass.

LKLIII

December 22nd, 2018 at 3:43 PM ^

True, but a lot of also depends on context of stuff that wasn't on video.  Was the kid in white an aggressive player all game?  If so, then it may be an entirely reasonable judgment to think that he was about to start pounding on soebody.  Conversely, is Karsen known as a hot-head or has he gotten into trouble before? Or is this an isolated case where he rushed in to make sure the bigger opposing player wasn't a threat to his much smaller teammate, but in the heat of the moment & with his large size/strength, just didn't gauge his approach & slow to a walk to use his body as a wall like a perfectly zen/calm person might do?

dipshit moron

December 22nd, 2018 at 3:07 PM ^

so a michigan recruit is involved, that should guarantee headlines on espn for a week and a nice 3 hr. rant from pete weenibaum on harbaugh and his outlaw recruiting.

KO Stradivarius

December 22nd, 2018 at 3:21 PM ^

I saw this story but did not know it was his school.   

I watched one of these occur between my high school and Lincoln Park in like 1979 or '80.  I was seated in the top row and there were a lot of fans going onto the floor.  But I said no way.  Surprisingly, no one was really hurt.  Fights were a common occurrence in those days. But they never made the news.  Nowadays, not so much.

MichiganStan

December 22nd, 2018 at 9:03 PM ^

I don't think anybody would want it with Barnhart. Dude could probably take on half the opposing team himself. Hes a big boy

Magnus

December 23rd, 2018 at 7:09 AM ^

It's always funny to me how Michigan fans look at something (potentially) bad that happened and immediately give their guy the benefit of the doubt.

Barnhart flew in there and flattened the dude on purpose. Good (he was defending a teammate!) or bad (he assaulted that guy!), that's what happened.

panthers5

December 23rd, 2018 at 9:19 AM ^

Very well said

As an administrator, this is my nightmare. This is not a good thing, and it can't be spun that way by anyone here. This isn't boys just being boys either. I've had something similar happen on my watch, and it isn't as innocent as most are portraying. The coach will definatly be sitting down with the AD and Principal most likely to discuss what happened, how to prevent it going forward, and most likely multiple game suspensions, most likely for Karsen.

 

This is not a good thing for Michigan in any way. As a high profile recruit, especially from a small town, this is a very bad look. He didn't shield his player, he became the aggressor and it was premeditated. There is ground for legal action here.