Connor Essegian takes a punch to the head, his social media response is worth seeing

Chaos in the New Mexico vs. Nebraska game, and former Badger Connor Essegian was caught up in the thick of it. In fact, he's the start and the finish of the entire ordeal. There's more to the story than the viral punch that got Deyton Albury ejected, but let's start there because that's when everyone started paying attention.

As the first half was coming to a close, Essegian made an aggressive play for a loose ball and ended up running into Antonio Chol of New Mexico. Chol makes a sweep of his elbows to knock Essegian away after Essegian backs off. Albury comes up behind Essegian, and he punches him in the back of the head, supposedly sending Connor's tooth to the floor. Watch the clip below:

Connor Essegian responds after the Nebraska game with a picture of his tooth

Related: BYU trending toward being without two key starters vs. Wisconsin

Albury was ejected and missed the entire second half. He may end up with a heavier suspension than that, as it was clearly a cheap shot with the intent to hurt. After the game, Essegian posts a photo on his X account of a tooth in his hand, captioned, "Well, that was a first for me." See the post below:

The question, though, is why? Why did Albury, one of the starters and stars for New Mexico, decide seemingly out of nowhere to punch a player in the back of the head? It was uncalled for, but in basketball, it often doesn't really come out of nowhere. Bad blood was created at some point.

It may have been earlier in the half, with Essegian seeming to have gotten away with his own shot, and Albury was sending it back to him. A play was isolated on social media that shows the point at which Albury seems to have decided he wanted to get Connor back. See the video below. Though it should be noted that it may have been aggressive by Essegian, it wasn't a cheap shot like Albury's was:

As a former Badger, Wisconsin fans know that Essegian also likes to get in his fair share of talking during a game. Who knows if that also helped encourage the cheap shot? Either way, Albury made a costly mistake that most likely cost the Lobos the game as they fell to Nebraska 84-72. It also may cost him even more, for a punch to the back of the head is serious, especially if Essegian really did lose that tooth in the act.