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March Question of the Month: How Dangerous is Court Storming?

by Cameron Moore (6th)

Court storming: it is one of the greatest traditions in high school and college basketball. A school’s students storm the court after a big win or a win against a big team. But, is this long lived tradition coming to an end?

Our Question of the Month for March: How dangerous is court storming?

At the collegiate level, we have already seen multiple incidents of player safety being threatened during court storms. Earlier this season, one of women’s basketball’s greatest players, Caitlin Clark, was nearly injured earlier this season when her Iowa Hawkeyes were upset by Ohio State. However, this was not the worst of it.

Saturday, 2/24, as Wake Forest students stormed the court, Duke University’s star, Kyle Filipowski, was injured in the knee by a stormer, and the college basketball world didn’t hold back.

Duke’s head coach, John Scheyer, actually called for the NCAA to ban court storming. “When are we going to ban court storming?” he said. Forest coach Steve Forbes said, “I don’t like court stormings. Never have.” Filipowski himself said, “This gotta change…” He also commented to local news sources that he thought he was knocked down intentionally. Many others, like sportswriters and commentators, want a different approach to the court storming incidents.

CBS’s Clark Kellogg said, “I think you just shut it down. …If you want to have a post-court storm a minute and a half after the game, then you can do that. But the players and coaches, officials, have to be given room to get off the court safely.” FOX Sports commentator John Fanta had a lot to say. “It didn’t change after Caitlin Clark, which is ridiculous. The Kyle Filipowski incident just cements it. I know crowd control…isn’t easy. But getting teams off floor/security has to be better or else penalties must be greater. Players getting hurt is insane. Enough!”

But what is going on? Well, each (most) of the conferences has penalties, as described in an ESPN article. The SEC and PAC-12 fine schools by an increased amount of money for each offense. UCF was fined $25,000 by the Big XII in January, and the Big East has a $5,000 fine. But, the Big Ten doesn’t fine schools until a third offense and the ACC doesn’t even have a fine, which explains why most court storms are from those two conferences.

Court storming incidents aren’t new. Kansas coach Bill Self was trapped on the court in 2015 after his Jayhawks were beaten by Kansas State. Forward Jamari Traylor came into contact with a KSU student in the same storming. A Texas Tech stormer was punched by West Virginia’s Wesley Harris in 2018. And in 2022, after Boise State won the Mountain West championship, security guards had to push back and tackle fans who tried to storm the court.

However, on SportsCenter, I heard more information about the court storming on Saturday. Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes knew he would win and that students would storm the court, so he called timeout in order to let security get set. They did not.

So, all in all, court storming is dangerous. But, with the correct precautions, we can definitely prevent incidents like this from happening again.

Photo: https://www.dukebasketballreport.com/2024/2/24/24082490/dbr-bites-37-duke-blue-devils-wake-forest-demon-deacons-kyle-filipowski-hurt-courtstorming 

Credits: https://www.fayobserver.com/story/sports/college/basketball/2024/02/24/kyle-filipowski-injury-reactions-court-storm-duke-wake-forest-acc-basketball/72730327007/,

https://www.espn.com/