Rice freshman forward Ahmad Ibrahim was suspended for Wednesday’s game against the University of Houston for ‘inappropriate behavior,’ coach Ben Braun said.
The punishment was in response to Ibrahim picking up back-to-back technical fouls for arguing a call with officials – and his ejection – in last week’s loss at East Carolina. The Owls beat the Cougars 79-71 at Hofheinz Pavilion.
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Ahmad Ibrahim, left, is averaging 6.6 points this season. (Andrew Richardson/For the Chronicle)
“He’s a great kid. But at times you have to stand up for discipline,” Braun said. “Ahmad had some inappropriate behavior at the end of the last game and I know he regrets it and I know he’s apologized for it and so I think it’s over with.
“Unfortunately you can’t pick-and-choose the game. If I could, this is not the game you’d sit a guy that obviously could have made a huge difference. But it happened to be our next game and I think as part of our principle and the demands of our program and who we are and the players understand it, Ahmad understands it, it was the next game and I told him I was going to give him a one-game suspension.”
Braun said the issue is “over with.” Ibrahim will return to the lineup Saturday against SMU at Tudor Fieldhouse.
“I have a feeling that chapter is over and we’ll move on and I think our players got a pretty good message as well,” Braun said. “We haven’t had to deal with those types of things very often – I haven’t anyways – but it was something I felt I had to do and he understands. He accepted responsibility and he was there cheering for his teammates and he’ll be back in uniform on Saturday so that’s the good news.”
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