*A routine postgame ritual erupted into controversy Saturday when Benjy Taylor, head basketball coach at Division II Tuskegee University, found himself detained by security at Morehouse College’s Forbes Arena, ESPN reports.
Video footage reveals Taylor’s interaction with an officer immediately after his team’s loss to Morehouse. According to both Taylor and Tuskegee athletic director Reginald Ruffin, the coach sought help addressing Morehouse football players who had positioned themselves within the customary handshake procession between competing basketball teams. Moments later, Taylor was placed under restraint and removed from public view.
Taylor described the circumstances leading to his detention in a public statement released later that evening. “I am at a loss for words, and I am upset about how I was violated and treated today,” Taylor said. “For my players, my family and people of Tuskegee to witness that is heartbreaking for me. I was simply trying to get the football team out of the handshake line as they were following right behind me and the team yelling obscenities! It was a very dangerous situation.”
Benjy Taylor, the men’s basketball coach at Division II Tuskegee University, was escorted off the court in handcuffs by a security officer after a postgame incident in the handshake line with Morehouse College Saturday.
Taylor and Tuskegee athletic director Reginald Ruffin both… pic.twitter.com/BxrMbrc6rG
— ESPN (@espn) February 2, 2026
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Ruffin backed Taylor’s version of events while acknowledging the officer presented a conflicting interpretation, claiming Taylor displayed aggression. Ruffin rejected this characterization, emphasizing conference-established safety requirements. “He asked the security officer, ‘Can you please remove them from the line?’ That’s what he asked the security officer,” Ruffin told HBCU Gameday.
Taylor’s attorney, Harry Daniels, also addressed the incident, saying, “When Coach Taylor asked two police officers to enforce those protocols, attempting to diffuse an increasingly dangerous situation, however, one of the officers chose to place him in handcuffs and escort him from the court.”
Tuskegee head coach Benjy Taylor was handcuffed by police after the loss at Morehouse.
Here’s his statement to @TheFieldOf68:
“I am at a loss for words and I am upset about how I was violated and treated today. For my players, my family and people of Tuskegee to witness that… pic.twitter.com/2AQRNCu1Dd
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) February 1, 2026
No criminal charges have materialized against Taylor. The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference announced financial penalties against Morehouse for protocol violations related to safety requirements.
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