Nebraska basketball coach Tim Miles became a Big Ten hero Wednesday night — but not because his struggling Cornhuskers beat Rutgers and advanced to the next round of the conference tournament.
No, Miles stole the spotlight after Nebraska’s 68-61 victory at United Center in Chicago because he was so amped up while jogging off the court and waving to fans that he wiped out hard. But the coach, whose job security could be in jeopardy, played off the spill like a champ and declared himself “safe.”
Thankfully, the internet shared a couple different angles of Miles eating it.
And of course, he was immediately asked about it during his post-game press conference and seemed pretty certain the gaffe was captured on camera by someone. The good news is he had a sense of humor about.
Explaining that he’s fine after the fall, Miles said, via ASAP Sports:
“You know, I’ve just — the wires they jumped up and got me. I thought I was a better athlete than that. But I’m old, I’m old. …
For anybody that doesn’t know, I fell down waving at the crowd, running down the hallway when I was leaving. I think it got caught on TV according to everybody that’s rubbing it in on me. So, yeah. I would say that’s a lot of exhilaration, but, yeah, just enough clumsiness to keep things interesting.”
After beating the Scarlet Knights, Nebraska, the Big Ten tournament’s No. 13 seed, will face No. 5 seed Maryland on Thursday.
