Iowa State senior forward Melvin Ejim directed an obscene gesture in the direction of the BYU student section after fouling out of the team’s narrow win. Ejim apologized for his actions and took full responsibility, but members of the BYU student section continued to email Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard to complain about Ejim’s actions.
Pollard acknowledged the comments from the fans and commented on the issue with a statement of his own.
"Thank you for your email. We do share your disappointment in one of our players for making an emotional and uncharacteristic gesture to the BYU student section. The player that made the gesture apologized, on his own volition, immediately following the game during our post-game press conference. Unfortunately college athletics can bring out the best and worse in student-athletes, coaches and crowds. Last night was a very good basketball game in front of a very vocal and intimidating environment. The game included a lot of drama and emotion exhibited by both teams and fans.Unfortunately one of our players, who is also one of the best student-athlete representatives that I have been involved in during my 24 years of working in college athletics (he is a scholar athletes,, a leader in our student-athlete captain’s council, and one of the most polite and courteous student-athletes I have ever met) lost his composure for a brief second near the end of the game. Although we do not condone that type of behavior, I also compare it to what many college coaches get away with during the game when they berate officials and behave like immature children on the sidelines. Unfortunately fan bases around the country have grown to accept that has normal, if not, desired behavior (fortunately neither coach last night behaves in that manner). However, when one student-athlete makes a bad decision in the heat of the battle, everyone wants to make a bigger deal out of it than is probably warranted."
You can read the full statement here.