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The bad blood between Branden Dawson and the Purdue Boilermakers is apparently not going to stop any time soon. The Michigan State Spartans forward was down to Purdue and MSU in recruiting but chose MSU. The last two seasons, he has acted like a brat while playing Purdue. On Saturday, he stepped things up by swinging at Travis Carroll.
The video is not the best quality but you can see Dawson throw the punch at Carroll. This makes sense because after the stoppage in play, Dawson and Terone Johnson were both assessed technical fouls. Although not shown in the video, Johnson confronts Dawson after this punch.
I have no idea what is going on between Dawson and Purdue. Last year, he ended up in a shouting match with Matt Painter that left Painter in a fighting mood. Seriously, I thought Painter was going to go after Dawson. Something in the recruitment must have gone bad between the two parties in the late stages. Once would simply be something to ignore, but this stuff has gone on multiple times, which smells like a trend.
I get that these two teams play a similar style and it leads to some hot heads. However, there is no need to throw a punch in college basketball. Dawson may not have liked the contact, but why would you throw a punch at someone? Just get back on defense and play hard. Acting like a punk is not going to win you any fans.
Let’s see if this play gets any attention.
