Dick Weiss on College Basketball
PHILADELPHIA– Court storming has always been a dangerous issue in college basketball.
And it occurs much more than we’d like because a lack of security for visiting teams trying to leave the court after an upset loss.
But it finally got national attention this attention when exuberant and sometimes unruly fans collided with two of the sport’s biggest stars– senior guard Caitlin Clark of Iowa and 6-11 sophomore center Kyle Filipowski of Duke.
Clark, who recently set an NCAA record for career scoring, had to be helped off the court after a fan collided with her following Ohio State’s 100-92 upset of the Hawkeyes.
Jan.21 in Columbus. She fell hard to the floor and needed assistance to get to the locker room after the collision. Ultimately, she was not seriously injured.
“Kind of scary, could have caused a serious injury to me. It knocked the wind out the wind out of me. Clark said. “Their AD already came and apologized to me, so I appreciate that.
This is what comes with the territory. I’m sure they tried their best do whatever they could to keep it safe. Obviously, it didn’t work, and that’s disappointing.”
Incidents are escalating out of control.
Filipowski suffered a knee injury in the frantic aftermath of the No. 8 Blue Devils’ 83-79 loss to ACC rival Wake Forest at sold out Joel Coliseum Saturday after more than one Wake fans appeared to run into him The court storm began with no resistance and led to Fliipowski needing help from a student manager who pulled him out of the scrum and a teammate Sam Borden to get to the locker room. Filipowski later claimed he was targeted by Wake fans.
“I felt a bunch of hits on my body,” he told Greensboro CBS affiliate WFMY. “This one was the worst of them. Like I said, It’s just ridiculous how, you know, the situation is handled. I’ve already heard that there are some videos of me getting punched in the back, so I absolutely feel like it was personal, intentional for sure. There’s no reason why they
see a big guy like me trying to work my way off the court and can’t work their way around me. There’s no excuse for that.”
He later posted on his twitter account, “This gotta change.”
ESPN has a tape that shows a Wake fan sprinting to midcourt but pausing mid-sprint to taunt Filipowski as he made his way off the floor. Bracing for contact, Filipowski extends his arms to brace for possible impact but spins off balance and gets clipped in the knee by the eager fan. An instant later, Filipowski and the fan collide and appear to knock knees with one another. Filipowski was seen with ice around his right knee after the game.
Duke coach Jon Scheyer, as you might expect, was upset.
“When are we going to ban court storming,” he said. “When are we going to ban that? How many times does a player have to get into something, where they get punched,
or they get pushed, or they get taunted right in their face. It’s a dangerous thing.
“You look around the country. Caitlin Clark, something happens. And now Flip, I don’t know what his status is going to be. He sprains his ankle. It’s one thing, like when I played, at
least it was 10 seconds, and you storm the court. Now, the buzzer doesn’t even go off and they’re running onto the floor. This has happened a bunch of times.”
Wake coach Steve Forbes agreed and that night, Wake AD John Currie issued a statement saying he had expressed regret for the incident to Duke AD Nina King and ACC senior associate commissioner Paul Brazeau. “Although our event management staff and security had rehearsed postgame procedures to protect the visiting team and officials, we clearly must do a better job.”
No kidding.
ESPN estimates there have been an average of three court storms a week over the past three months National contender Purdue has already been involved in three after losses at Northwestern, Nebraska and Ohio State. Rarely has anyone suffered serious injury but the risk is always there, as we sadly discovered in 2003 when a court storm resulted in Arizona high school star Joe Kay suffering a stroke that left him partially paralyzed.
Obviously there needs to be something done to control this type of spontaneous activity and conferences need to address it with more than just a fine to the host school. Discontinuing alcohol sales in the second half, doing away with the handshake line and providing security for the visiting team to reach the locker room safely are options.as are police arrests if offending individuals can be identified.
But most schools do not have the manpower to stop it all together and there is always the chance more people could get hurt trying to stop it than manage it.
Many administrators and coaches endorse it as an igniting moment on campus and networks are posting more and more videos popularizing the moment.
Barry Geisler, the former general manager of George Mason’s EagleBank Arena, told ESPN the only way to stop court storm “is for the winning team to forfeit the game. Coaches love the student energy from an upset win over a great opponent. The coach wouldn’t like it nearly as much if the game was forfeited.”
It’s the ultimate death penalty.
