Should the NCAA ban court storming after Kyle Filipowski’s injury?
The long practice of court storming after a college basketball team finishes a big win at home is once again in the national spotlight thanks to an injury suffered by star Duke big man Kyle Filipowski on Saturday.
Filipowski collided with Wake Forest fans on the court after the Demon Deacons completed an 83-79 upset over the Blue Devils, who were ranked No. 8 at the time. As Filipowski recoiled in pain following the collision, several enraged members of the Duke team — including head coach Jon Scheyer — protectively surrounded the 7-foot-1 center to make sure he exited the court without further injury.
Scheyer later said Filipowski, who leads the Blue Devils in points and rebounds, sustained a sprained ankle and his status is currently unclear with just weeks to go before the ACC conference tournament and NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
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The incident also comes just over one month after Iowa star Caitlin Clark fell to the ground in a similar court-storming collision after the Hawkeyes were upset by Ohio State in Columbus. Clark, who is now the NCAA women’s basketball all-time leading scorer, was shaken up but not seriously hurt and did not miss any time.
Some high-profile coaches from across men’s and women’s college basketball have called for a court-storming ban earlier this season, including Purdue men’s coach Matt Painter. After Filipowski’s injury, Scheyer added his voice to the chorus.
On Monday’s edition of “Undisputed,” Skip Bayless said he too believes that the NCAA should ban court storming going forward, saying it could lead to an incident where a player could try to fight back and escalate the situation.
“You’ve been playing with your emotions all over your sleeves for four quarters, and a bunch of crazed fans — maybe drunk fans — are running headlong at you,” Bayless said. “There is potential you might deck three or four of them. … I believe this is just too dangerous but I don’t have a great way to stop it.”
The legality of fans storming an area of play after a big win and colliding with opposing players during that process applies to other sports as well. A Notre Dame fan went viral late last year for making physical contact with star USC quarterback Caleb Williamswhile filming himself taunting Williams during a field storm after the Fighting Irish beat the rival Trojans.
Bayless’s co-host Keyshawn Johnson, a former two-time All-American wide receiver at USC, disagreed and said court storming and field storming are too ingrained in the fabric of college sports to be outlawed.
Johnson said it was Filipowski’s responsibility to be aware of the fans around him and avoid making contact with them as he attempted to exit the court.
“Get out of the way, man,” Johnson said. “Just get out of the way. You can see them coming. … The fans in college basketball are a part [of the culture with] the student athletes. They’re rushing the court because they see guys that they’re in class with, that they may have a meal with, that they hang out and party with, just won a big game. So naturally, the emotions are riding so high that they storm the field or the court.
“[Filipowski] saw them, he just couldn’t get out of the way. … It’s a freak accident.”
Filipowski, meanwhile, told reporters after the game that he believed the fans who collided with him did so intentionally. He also later seemingly voiced his support for a change in court-storming restrictions in a post to X, formerly Twitter.
Wake Forest athletic director John Currie said in a statement that he called Nina King, his Duke counterpart, to apologize for the incident and said he was “in complete agreement” with Scheyer that “something more must be done about the national phenomenon of court and field storming.”
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