By: Pryce Wilojanapa, Sports Management, 24′

The number 8 seed Duke took on Wake Forest and it was a down to the wire game in which Duke lost by 4 points but this wasn’t the only issue that went down in this game. These two teams have a longstanding rivalry in college basketball as both teams are a part of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) so these two teams have highly anticipated by fans each time they play.

Duke lost and at the end of the game nearly 15,000 Wake Forest fans stormed the court and injured Duke star player Kyle Filipowski. Kyle Filliposski is supposed to be a top 20 selection in the 2024 NBA draft. Kyle Filiposski on the season is averaging 17 ppg. 8.2 reb. and 2.8 assists. Afterwards Kyle Filipowski tweeted “this needs to change…” Even Duke head coach Jon Scheyer spoke out expressing his feeling how court storming should be banned. He said, “When I played, at least it was 10 seconds and you storm(ed) the court,” Scheyer said. “Now, the buzzer doesn’t even go off and they’re running on the floor. This has happened to us a bunch this year. … I don’t want this to take away at all from Wake (Forest). They earned it, they deserve the win.” Even Wake Forest head coach Steve Forbes agreed with his statement about banning court storming. He quoted, “I didn’t see what happened in the end. I hope he’s OK,” Forbes told reporters after the game. “I don’t like court stormings. I never have. I’ve been a part of those before as a coach. It just (doesn’t) feel safe.” Wake Forest fans were apparently already storming the court before the shot clock even expired which makes it even more unsafe for the players. What was making it worse is that on tv security was shown on tv letting the fans go on the court without stopping them at all. When crowd control and you don’t have a plan for court storming things like this can happen and players could get injured and even the fans just running into each other because there are so many fans. 

They can easily stop this by arresting fans, giving out tickets and citations to people but they don’t want to because it’s better attraction for their college and can attract star athletes. Crowd storming doesn’t happen in the NFL, NHL, NBA, WNBA and that’s because they are organized and prepared for this kind of stuff they have the right staff, security, etc. For example a video on ESPN of Katiline Clark when she was running off the court a fan ran onto the court and ran right into her. This incident brought up the argument of court storming but nothing came avail afterwards. In a statement Saturday, the Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner Jim Phillips said the “safety of our student-athletes is always our top priority.” If safety to our student athletes is our top priority then why allow court storming until someone finally gets injured over these years? So the question is should court storming be allowed in the NCAA after this second incident?

 

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