PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – There is no mincing words with Duke head coach Jon Scheyer when he discusses court storming.
“Players and coaches and officials are the only people who belong on that court,” Scheyer said Monday. “Something should be done now, immediately.”
Scheyer is obviously invested after his star player and one of the best in the game, Kyle Filipowski suffered a knee injury colliding with a Wake Forest fan as they stormed the court following the Demon Deacons upset over Duke on Saturday. After Filipowski was hit near the knee, he was pushed by another fan and had to limp to the locker room.
The second-year Duke head coach said bluntly that it can’t happen and it would have been worse Saturday if not for his student-managers rushing out to protect the players.
“ACC needs to do something,” Scheyer said. “There has to be something done to protect our guys, not just our guys, but any team that is in that situation.”
It’s not a matter or ropes or extra security in Scheyer’s mind. He said when Duke played at Arkansas earlier in the season, they had both, yet fans still got through the barriers and onto the court.
“One second off the clock, they are on the floor,” Scheyer said. “Three seconds, they are in Flip’s face, right away. Time, roped off security, bottom line, it was a failure.”
“It comes down to the well-being of our guys,” Scheyer said. “I think it would be wrong of me not to speak up for all of the student-athletes that can be put in this position. Something needs to change now before something serious happens.”
“Go back and look at (Duke player) Jared McCain and the position that he was in when that game ended. The kid could have punched him in the face. He could have punched the kid for his own safety. When you get a student or a fan that close to you, face-to-face, two seconds after the game ends, we will regret that as college athletics, college basketball if we don’t do something to prevent that from happening in the future.”
Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said Monday his concern is similar. That while he wants the students and his players to celebrate together, he is worried about safety.
“Somebody is going to push them, get in their face and a player is going to do something to a fan,” Brownell said. “There is a lot of concern.”
Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton, who has been coaching since 1971, says he is surprised something hasn’t happened previously before the Duke situation.
“In the climate we live in today, we have to take precaution to make sure no one is injured or nothing happens,” Hamilton said. He adds the fines should be around $1 million to the hosting school to hammer home the message to students and schools that this can’t occur again.
“I’m not saying I’m against court storming, totally, but when you have situation that just happened against Wake Forest,” said Pitt head coach Jeff Capel.
“You saw the situation that happened earlier in the year with Caitlin Clark, it makes me lean towards that (banning court storming) if you can’t have it under control.”
Scheyer said there is enough proof. Players have already been injured, fans will be soon. What will be done?