Simons calls falling basketball hoop incident at Northern Illinois "scary"
Junior guard Rayshawn Simmons (4) and junior forward John Simons (34) walk up the floor during CMU’s 65-62 win over Toledo Jan. 6.
Junior men's basketball forward John Simons has been an internet sensation this week.
After narrowly ducking out of the way of a collapsing basketball hoop at Northern Illinois University following a dunk from NIU's Pete Rakocevic Saturday, Simons' last-second escape from near disaster has gone viral.
The video has appeared everywhere from Deadspin to CBS Sports to leading off SportsCenter on ESPN .
Simons talked about the near miss for the first time Monday.
“I just saw orange coming down over the top of my head. I just ducked and tried to get out of the way,” Simons said. “Luckily, I did what I did. That’s a big basket coming down.”
The 6-foot-8 Cadillac native, who picked up six rebounds in CMU's 73-55 loss to the Huskies, said even he did not realize how close the basket came to crushing him until he saw a replay.
“It’s kind of scary looking back after I saw the video of how close it was,” Simons said. “But stuff happens. I guess we were lucky to get out of there without any injuries (to) anybody.”
Head Coach Keno Davis said he has never seen something like Saturday's incident.
“You just don’t see that happen,” Davis said. “In all the years that I’ve coached, whether they’ve been games or practices, I haven’t seen baskets come down like that.”
Junior guard Chris Fowler was waiting for the inbounds pass from Simons right before the basket collapsed.
“It was rather slow because John got to take the ball out and he was looking at me,” Fowler said. “It was coming down. Thankfully he got out of the way and nobody got hurt.”
Davis doesn’t blame NIU Athletics for the hoop's collapse, he said.
CMU will attempt to clinch the Mid-American Conference West Division title and a top four seed in the MAC Tournament with a win Tuesday against Toledo University.
“You’re thankful each and every night when your guys come out healthy and avoid a basket falling on them,” Davis said.
