Should Court Storming Be Banned

Duke @ Wake Forest

The Duke Blue Devils traveled to North Carolina to take on Wake Forest in an ACC showdown. The 17-9 Demon Deacons came into the matchup as a 2.5-point favorites.

The entire game was back-and-forth as both teams were scoring at a high clip. After the first half, Duke held a 38-36 lead, but Wake Forest came out hot in the second half behind guard Hunter Sallis. The Demon Deacons pulled ahead late and caused Duke to turn the ball over three times in the last minute of play to hang on for the 83-79 win.

After the final buzzer, Wake Forest faithful stormed the court after knocking off the number 8 team in the nation. However, multiple fans ran into Duke’s Kyle Filipowski which resulted in Filipowski injuring his leg. Duke staff members and head coach Jon Scheyer had to pull their player off the court to get him out of the madness. In a press conference, coach Scheyer was unhappy with the outcome of the court storm and the potential injury to Filipowski. He also said he felt the contact from the fans was on purpose and asked when will court storming be banned.

Filipowski is a big part of Duke’s success this season. He leads the team in points per game (16.9), rebounds (8.2), and blocks (1.7).

Previous Issues

We have seen players get injured during a court storm already this season. Iowa’s Caitlyn Clark took a hit after Ohio State upset the Hawkeyes. Another incident happened in Tulane after the Green Wave took down Memphis. A Tulane fan was seen touching Memphis player David Jones during the celebration.

Consequences

Most conferences have penalties in place for court storming, especially if the celebration is not done in a safe manner that potentially harms players and referees. We have seen hefty fines dished out this year such as a $100,000 fine on South Carolina after they beat number 6 Kentucky last month. However, not all conferences have punishments for court storms…cough cough the ACC.

My Opinion

I am a big fan of court storming. What is more exciting than seeing a top-ranked team get upset vs an unranked team and hundreds of fans rushing the court to celebrate? It gives us something that the professional level doesn’t. I do agree that there needs to be some rules implemented to keep players and other nonparticipants of the court storming safe. My suggestion would be for the arena to let off a buzzer once everyone who needs to exit the court has done so. This does take away from the fun as it would suck having to wait a little bit, but it is better than court storming being banned for good.