College Basketball Pundits Denounce Court Storming After Kyle Filipowski Injury
Grant Halverson/Getty Images. Pictured: Wake Forest Demon Deacons fans storm the court after a win Duke Blue Devils at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Court storming is front and center once again after Wake Forest defeated Duke Saturday as 2.5-point home favorites.
Fans rushed the court at the final buzzer in such a fury that Blue Devils center Kyle Filipowski appeared to get injured in the middle of the chaos. Filipowski had to be helped off the court in the middle of the massive celebration and could be seen limping into the locker room.
ESPN just showed a new angle of the court-storming at Wake Forest where Duke's Kyle Filipowski was injured. Can clearly see where he hurts his knee as a fan taunts him while racing to midcourt. Unbelievable. pic.twitter.com/ABAsKC2kTI
— Kyle Boone (@kyletheboone) February 24, 2024
The scene was reminiscent of an incident that happened almost exactly one month ago when a fan crashed into Iowa Hawkeyes star Caitlin Clark on the court after an upset loss to Ohio State in overtime.
While Clark turned out to be fine after the collision, it sparked a conversation for some about whether court-storming should be allowed at all. That conversation was revisited immediately after Saturday's game with Duke head coach Jon Scheyer and others chiming in.
“When are we going to ban court storming?”
Jon Scheyer on Kyle Filipowski spraining his ankle in the court storming at Wake Forest, and he also points to what happened to Caitlin Clark at Ohio State, a month ago. pic.twitter.com/VCdMJXRywl
— Will Dalton (@thewilldalton) February 24, 2024
Scheyer mentioned that Filipowski sprained his ankle in the press conference, while there were reports that Filipowski complained that it was his knee. We'll certainly know more about his status in the coming days.
The Blue Devils head coach wasn't the only person who came out in force against fans storming the court. ESPN's Seth Greenberg took aim at Wake Forest after the broadcast for being unprepared to control the fans in the event of a big win at home.
"Wake Forest administration dropped the ball," Greenberg said. "Shame on you because you should have had something in place to make sure of the most important thing, the security of the visiting team."
ESPN's Seth Greenberg on court storming after the Kyle Filipowski injury: "Wake Forest dropped the ball. …You have to have a plan in place to make sure these players get off the court safely. …Shame on you." pic.twitter.com/h6WjkxOt7w
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 24, 2024
CBS's Clark Kellogg advocated for a "penalty that is extremely dissuading" to force schools to prepare for and prevent these situations. The SEC this season began implementing fines for the schools of court-storming fans — $100K for the first offense, $250K for the second and $500K for any offense after that. LSU was just given a $100K fine for storming the court after their win over Kentucky Thursday, while South Carolina received a $100K fine in January for the offense.
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