South Carolina Fans Chanted 'Lock Him Up' at Brandon Miller, Fought in the Stands


Alabama's freshman phenom Brandon Miller played in last night's game against South Carolina even though a lot of people thought he shouldn't. Miller allegedly delivered a gun used by former teammate Darius Miles to murder Jamea Jonae Harris, according to Tuscaloosa Police and his status with the team has been a hot-button issue ever since Nate Oats fumbled his first opportunity to address the new public revelations. It appears that the second-ranked Crimson Tide will forge ahead with their best player for now and deal with the repercussions of that decision every time they are on the road.
Gamecocks faithful provided a glimpse of what that might look like and it's pretty uncomfortable for everyone involved. For instance, here's the crowd chanting "lock him up" with Miller at the free-throw line.
Crowd at South Carolina vs Alabama is rowdy early on. Don’t think Brandon Miller is gonna have an easy night pic.twitter.com/SDj41OAp7R
— Cooper Hird (@HirdItHereHoops) February 23, 2023
And here's a fight in the stands that broke out after one of those chants, which was so violent that the game had to be delayed while arena bouncers got involved.
Truly a bizarre scene.
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 23, 2023
With South Carolina fans chanting "lock him up" Brandon Miller misses a free throw. Play is briefly stopped shortly after due to a fight in the stands, behind the same basket Miller was shooting to. pic.twitter.com/oAmXVrbDCF
Miller just happened to put on one of the most impressive individual performances of the year, scoring 41 points and delivering the game-winner with 0.9 seconds remaining in overtime.
This situation feels like it will be the No. 1 story headed into the NCAA Tournament. And if yesterday was an indication, it will be rough to watch pundits and announcers try to figure out how to contextualize Miller's off-court situation with his play on it. There are some tweets floating around highlighting the vague language used and, honestly, it seems a bit unfair. People are only speaking about this on live television and trying to build a bridge to the second they can stop talking about it and move on to Miller's mid-range game because Alabama has forced them into it.