Georgia Bulldogs momentum vanished in Gainesville as their seven game winning streak ended against the Florida Gators, marking their first conference loss and second overall. The turning point came early. In the first half, 6 foot 11 center Somto Cyril was ejected after striking Florida Gators big man Rueben Chinyelu. After review, officials had little choice, and Georgia never fully recovered from the blow.

Ironically, this act of malice happened right after the Bulldogs’ bucket as Blue Cain found the hoop. Needless to say, his Somto Cyril’s departure made a big difference on court.

Cyril had been an invaluable asset to the team and is leading the team in rebounds (6.1) and blocks (2.7). Moreover, he averages 10 points and also shoots a team-high 81.1% on the season. His substitute, Kareem Stagg, didn’t really have the same effect on the team as he did, and in the 7 minutes allotted for him, could only muster 2 points and a solitary rebound.

That doesn’t help when you are going toe to toe with the defending national champions. Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh added 21 points each, Urban Klavzar came off the bench to score 11 points, and even Rueben Chinyelu finished off the game with 10 points as Florida ingested the Bulldogs (92-77).

Right when things were looking normal, the script totally flipped, and it went from 22-21 with 10:14 to go in the first half to the Bulldogs getting outscored in the second (51-37). Bulldogs coach Mike White too felt that it was a game-changing moment for him and the team alike.

“At the end of the day, he lost control of his emotions, and we’ve got to grow from that. He’s an emotional kid. He’s come along way with controlling his emotions and playing less emotional,” highlighted the coach.

“Off the court, on the court, that’s who he is, and that’s his personality. But we’ve got to play with more maturity and poise and play with better decisions because obviously making a poor decision and taking yourself out of the equation is not what your teammates need from you. There’s no place for flying elbows in the game,” he further added, as to how Somto could have shown more control over his emotions.

But that was the coach’s opinion. What the people and the fans make of this situation is something that we are curious to find out about. So let’s dive in and see what social media has to say about this.

Fans Show Sympathy for Cyril After His Eviction

After careful consideration and putting everything into perspective, the public sentiment towards Somto Cyril and his blunder on the court has been somewhat forgiving. The fans are more than happy to give him a leeway of sorts cause they only felt it was a natural reaction to the “abuse” he was taking on court even as a few of them went beyond the two players and commented “Florida-Georgia should always get chippy in every sport.”

“Bro was reciprocating what he took two possessions prior. Just happened to be the one who got caught in the act,” said a fan. The duo was involved in a front-court battle from the start, and there was a lot of physicality involved as they were caught in a tussle. Many felt that Rueben, too, did the same to Cyril, the only being it didn’t catch the official’s eyes.

“That would be a good scrap there. Chenleyu has some elbows he could throw too!,” another comment read. Over the years, Chinyelu has built a reputation for playing hard on the court as his physical and strong, interior basketball-oriented game has demanded attention. But calamity struck when Cyril’s similar gameplay matched his, creating an “immovable object meets an unstoppable force” kind of situation.

“He got elbowed in the face on back-to-back plays with no whistle. Not the right move, but the refs didn’t help,” read a comment, pointing out the same mistakes that the referees made. Chinyelu, who averages 10.3 rebounds,0.9 blocks, and 0.7 steals, also has a habit of committing fouls. Though they are not made with ill intent, it does tend to happen quite a bit.

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However, others felt the same as Cyril’s coach, Mike White, and highlighted how he should have shown restraint and thought this through before making a lunge. “He knew he made a mistake,” came another comment giving their verdict on the matter.

Somto, who also goes by the nickname “Baby Shaq” because of his size and frame, should take this as a learning curve and hopefully avoid repeating this act in the future, cause now he is well aware how adversely it affects the team. Just like Shaq, Somto too has a history of breaking a few backboards, and that is fine too, just as long as you don’t break someone’s face.