Careful with that cane! Photo captures fans from Kentucky, Kansas fussing in the stands.

An intense on-court battle between college basketball blue bloods Kentucky and Kansas led to an attention-grabbing photo from the courtside seats in Chicago on Tuesday night.

Top-ranked Kansas ultimately won the Champions Classic contest in the United Center 89-84 over 17th-ranked Kentucky. Both sides came away feeling like their teams learned valuable lessons from the early-season clash of traditional powers.

It seems the fans pictured in a photo by Herald-Leader staff photographer Silas Walker left the arena in good spirits as well — but not before a heated yet humorous moment.

Herald-Leader staff writer Ben Roberts, who was at the United Center, described the action in the photo this way after readers on Twitter/X asked about it:

“The UK fan to the left was, let’s just say, boisterous for the entire first half. The KU fan with the cane took exception and poked him. And that provided us with our halftime entertainment.”

In the college and pro sports worlds, viral videos make the rounds almost weekly showing fans resorting to fists of fury, tackling one another into the bleachers or other unruly behaviors.

Fortunately, this never devolved into that.

Roberts later reported: “The UK fan who got poked with the cane just exchanged high-fives with a Kansas fan who is sitting with KU Cane Guy. Exciting basketball is bringing everyone together in Chicago tonight.”

This photo really has it all: Kentucky fans, Kansas fans, a cane, a spectacular pair of earrings, accusatory finger-pointing, and even a fan from Michigan State trying to enjoy the remainder of the doubleheader after his team was beaten by Duke earlier in the night.

See. We really can all get along. But let’s keep our canes holstered.