A couple hours before tipoff Saturday, a San Diego State superfan decried an X post urging UNLV fans to rush the court at Viejas Arena like January 6 rioters invading the Capitol.
“If UNLV wins and you’re at the game, make sure to storm SDSU’s courts just like our nation’s heroes stormed the capitol in Washington D.C exactly three years ago today,” said a screenshot of a tweet supposedly sent by the official X account of UNLV men’s basketball.
On X, the former Twitter, @Show__lumni addressed @TheRunninRebels: “Whoa. This tweet is not cool. … Glad you deleted it, but it should have never been tweeted in the first place.”
But it never was tweeted in the first place. The cited post was a hoax.
On Monday, two days after the provocative post, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, spokesman confirmed no such tweet came from UNLV — after the one shared by @Show__lumni had received nearly 37,000 views.
“This appears to be photoshopped,” said Andy Grossman, senior associate director for strategic communications at UNLV.
Jamie McConeghy is SDSU’s senior associate athletic director for communications and media relations. He agreed with his Las Vegas counterpart.
“Like Andy said, this appears to be photoshopped and this did not come from UNLV’s official men’s basketball account,” McConeghy told Times of San Diego. “We have no further comment.”
But dozens of comments followed the @Show__lumni post, even spreading to a Mountain West Conference message board.
“Somebody better get fired — I don’t wanna see an apology,” said one commenter on X.
Another called the post “disgusting and shameful,” adding: “Whoever runs this account should be fired. Like, today.”
A third said: “Someone tell [coach Brian Dutcher] to run the score up after this shit.”
The Aztecs ultimately defeated the Runnin Rebels 72-61. It wasn’t clear whether any SDSU players were aware of the “storm the court” tweet or its being a hoax.
@Show__lumni describes himself as “a guy who used to be in @TheShowSDSU during Mehdi Cheriet glory years. Tweets do not reflect thoughts of all Showlumni but do represent views of Steve Schnall.”
Cheriet, a native of France, was a supporting player on SDSU basketball teams between 2008 and 2011, “a member of what could be considered as the best frontcourt in San Diego State history in 2010-11,” says a school bio.
Steve Schnall is a former executive associate athletic director at San Diego State. His LinkedIn account now lists him as owner of Schnall Call Consulting.
Despite his mention by @Show__lumni, Schnall appears not to be connected to that Twitter account.
One observer has a theory about Schnall being referenced in the X account bio. The sports worker says the X account holder has an ax to grind against Schnall — maybe taking away @Show__lumni’s arena privileges.
“He’s mad at Schnall for something,” the observer said in a phone interview.
In the thread of comments after the original post, @Show__lumni on Saturday said: “It’s fake. Learning from Conor’s photoshop skills” — an apparent reference to Conor Mongan, an SDSU alumnus and graphic artist who goes by @lemurfemur on social media.
(Ten years ago, Sports Illustrated profiled Mongan, one of the creators of “The Show,” as the originator of the big printed cardboard heads used by students sections at basketball games to rattle opposing players taking free throws.)
Later, @Show_lumni conceded more explicitly: “This was, in fact, not real. Some of y’all should know better ?”
@Show__lumni didn’t respond to requests to contact me. Steve Schnall didn’t respond to a message sent via LinkedIn.
The observer didn’t know who created the hoax tweet but noted that @Show__lumni the next day tweeted: “Wait. Let me get this straight. Utah State fans stormed the court against.. Colorado State? A school with ONE tourney win since 1989?”
No matter who created the fake tweet, the observer was more interested in highlighting something else: Mountain West had three teams in The Associated Press top 25 men’s poll Monday — with Colorado State ranked 17th, the Aztecs 19th and Utah State 20th.
If you have information regarding this hoax, please contact Ken Stone at kens@timesofsandiego.com Or send a direct message via X.
Updated at 10 a.m. Jan. 9, 2024.