No. 8 Duke lost its sixth game of the 2023-24 season Saturday against Wake Forest, and afterward, things took a bad turn for the Blue Devils.
As the clock hit zeros and the Demon Deacons secured their upset victory at home, fans stormed the court, and the rest of the crowd at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum went wild. The problem was that Duke players were, of course, still on the court when the fans rushed it, specifically sophomore center Kyle Filipowski.
Filipowski — who finished the game with a team-high of 17 points — was standing near the Wake Forest logo when he was seemingly plowed into by stampeding Demon Deacons fans. Filipowski appeared to be instantly injured, and Duke players and staff surrounded him and helped him off the court.
"That should not happen. That right there is why court-storming should not happen."
ESPN's Chris Spatola weighs in on court-storming after Duke's Kyle Filipowski hurt following Wake Forest's upset win over Duke.
(Correction: this tweet initially attributed that line to… pic.twitter.com/7UYy9Tudpu
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 24, 2024
Afterward, Duke coach Jon Scheyer said Filipowski sprained his ankle and made a compelling argument for banning storming the court — a change multiple coaches in college hoops have pushed for recently.
He said:
“Disappointed we lost. But look, for me, I’m more concerned about the well-being of our guys. [Filipowski] sprains his ankle — when are we going to ban court-storming? Like, when are we going to ban that? Like, how many times does a player have to get into something where they get punched or they get pushed or they get taunted right in their face? And it’s a dangerous thing.”
“When are we going to ban court storming?”
Jon Scheyer on Kyle Filipowski spraining his ankle in the court storming at Wake Forest, and he also points to what happened to Caitlin Clark at Ohio State, a month ago. pic.twitter.com/VCdMJXRywl
— Will Dalton (@thewilldalton) February 24, 2024
Afterward on Twitter, Filipowski seemed to agree with his coach.
This gotta change…
— Kyle “Flip” Filipowski (@kylefilipowski) February 24, 2024
Scheyer also added that his concerns for Filipowski and about storming the court in general were not meant to diminish Wake Forest’s win and argued the Demon Deacons should make the men’s NCAA tournament. He continued:
“I don’t want that to take away from the game that Wake played, bc Wake played a big time game. Salas was as good as could be today. And hats off to them. But you look around the country, and Caitlin Clark, something happens. now flip. I don’t know what his status is going to be. He sprained his ankle. …
“And this has happened to us a bunch this year. As part of it, I don’t want this to take away at all, from Wake. They earned it. They deserve the win. Steve [Forbes] is a hell of a coach. I respect the heck out of him and his team. They’re really good. And if this isn’t an example that they need to be in the tournament, what are we even talking about?”
Scheyer referenced an incident involving Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark from January when Ohio State fans stormed the court after beating the Hawkeyes, and one fan collided with Clark, knocking her down.
More via USA TODAY Sports from that incident last month:
“[It was] kind of scary and could’ve caused a pretty serious injury to me and knocked the wind out of me, but luckily my teammates kind of picked me up and got me off the court,” Clark said in a post-game press conference.
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