Tag: Kyle Filipowski

2024 NBA mock drafts: March first-round projections for OKC Thunder

2024 NBA mock drafts: March first-round projections for OKC Thunder.

While the Oklahoma City Thunder (41-18) continue to fight for the first seed as they’re set to make their first playoff run since 2020, they’ve been frequently mentioned in 2024 NBA mock drafts.

The Thunder are rich with draft assets throughout the rest of the decade due to several trades they made in their rebuild. OKC owns four 2024 first-round picks, but the two worst of the bunch will be rerouted to the Dallas Mavericks and Indiana Pacers.

The Thunder had 2024 draft picks to shed due to their surplus of young talent already on the roster. In all likelihood, they’ll have a pair of lottery picks from the Houston Rockets and Utah Jazz.

The Rockets’ pick is top-four protected and the Jazz’s pick is top-10 protected. Considering where they are in the standings, the Thunder will likely have both picks.

With that said, here’s a look at who draft experts have going to OKC (with the Houston and Utah picks) in the latest wave of mock drafts. The projected pick slot varies based on the date of each mock’s publication.

Kyle Filipowski’s full answers from the Naismith Trophy Q&A

The Naismith Trophy social media account released a short interview with Duke’s Kyle Filipowski as part of its Player of the Year Midseason Team Q&A series on Friday. Check out his answers here.

The Naismith Trophy, as part of an ongoing Q&A series with its midseason watch list, released a short interview with Duke star Kyle Filipowski on Friday.

There were only four questions and they were quite brief, but the most prestigious trophy in college basketball wants fans to get the chance to know some of its finalists beyond their performance on the court.

You can find the entire thread of Filipowski’s questions and answers on the team’s page here, posted to X (formerly known as Twitter). Here’s a brief recap of everything the Duke 7-footer and likely All-ACC forward said.

Duke sits as top No. 3 seed in Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology update

Where is Duke seeded in Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology update after Saturday’s loss to Wake Forest?

The Duke Blue Devils sit at the bottom of the No. 3 seed line as the 12th overall seed in Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology update.

They slipped down a few spots after Duke’s 83-79 loss to Wake Forest on Saturday, a road loss that pushed the Demon Deacons into the tournament field.

Duke is 21-6 and 12-4 in the ACC after Saturday’s defeat, which ended a five-game win streak for the Blue Devils.

The Blue Devils remain the second-highest ACC team in the ESPN bracketologist’s rankings behind the North Carolina Tar Heels, who are currently a No. 2 seed in Lunardi’s projections. The conference has five projected tournament teams after Wake moved inside the bubble, joining Clemson and Virginia in the current bracket.

https://twitter.com/ESPNLunardi/status/1761758961726845088/photo/1

Any path to a higher seed became murkier after the game when star player Kyle Filipowski suffered a leg injury during Wake Forest’s court-storming after he was caught in a swarm of fans.

Freshman guard Caleb Foster also picked up an ankle injury in the second half of the game Saturday.

Wake Forest athletic director releases statement after Saturday’s court-storming incident

Wake Forest athletic director John Currie released a statement on Saturday to express regret for the court-storming incident that injured Kyle Filipowski.

Court-storming became a hot-button issue for all the wrong reasons on Saturday when Duke star Kyle Filipowski got caught in a crowd of Demon Deacons fans and ended up needing to be helped off the court.

Filipowski said he hurt his knee during the debacle, and replay showed some Wake Forest fans made their way onto the court before the final buzzer sounded.

Wake Forest athletic director John Currie released a statement on the incident later on Saturday evening.

“On behalf of Wake Forest, we sincerely regret the unfortunate on-court incident following (Saturday) afternoon’s men’s basketball game and hope the involved Duke student-athlete is doing better,” Currie wrote.

The athletic director added that he called Duke athletic director Nina King to apologize, and he reached out to ACC Senior Associate Commissioner Paul Brazeau to do the same.

Currie also expressed his support for Duke head coach Jon Scheyer, who emphatically asked for court-storming to be banned after the incident.

“I am in complete agreement that something more must be done,” Currie wrote. “And Wake Forest looks forward to being a part of those conversations.”

Filipowski reaches 1,000 career points during Saturday game against Wake Forest

Star forward Kyle Filipowski’s afternoon took a turn after a postgame incident with Wake Forest fans, but he reached a notable milestone beforehand.

Duke star Kyle Filipowski had an eventful Saturday afternoon.

He scored 17 points with eight rebounds and five assists against Wake Forest before he collided with some fans during a postgame court storming, injuring his knee.

However, the 7-footer did cross a major career milestone earlier during the game in Winston-Salem. He scored his 1,000th point as a Blue Devil, becoming the fifth player to reach such a mark within two seasons since the start of the century.

Filipowski averaged 15.1 points in 36 games as a freshman in 2022-23, giving him a total of 543 points in his debut season. The forward is averaging 16.9 points per game through 27 games so far as a sophomore

Only Luke Kennard, Kyle Singler, JJ Redick, and Jason Williams have scored 1,000 points within two seasons in Durham since 2000.

The five biggest takeaways from Duke’s loss to Wake Forest

From the postgame court storming to some crucial turnovers in the closing minutes, here are our biggest takeaways from Saturday’s game against the Demon Deacons.

The Blue Devils lost their third game in 10 weeks on Saturday, a nail-biting four-point loss on the road against Wake Forest.

Duke performed pretty exceptionally for most of the game, given the circumstances. The Blue Devils scored 79 points and shot 53.1% from the floor, and Duke made 11 of its 25 3-point attempts.

The star trio of Kyle Filipowski, Jared McCain, and Jeremy Rooach all scored at least 15 points. McCain made three of his four 3-point attempts, Filipowski had eight rebounds and five assists, and Roach made six of his eight shots from the floor.

The effort wasn’t enough against one of the best teams in the ACC, however, as Demon Deacons were led by 29 points from Gonzaga transfer Hunter Sallis in the statement home win.

The star-making performance was unfortunately overshadowed by a postgame altercation between Wake Forest fans and Filipowski, who was injured amid a court-storming.

How much of Saturday was a compliment to Wake Forest, and how much was a negative toward Duke? Here are our biggest thoughts on the game.

Kyle Filipowski says court-storming altercation with Wake Forest fans felt intentional

Star Blue Devils forward Kyle Filipowski needed to be helped off the court after a run-in with Wake Forest fans, and he said the sequence felt personal and intentional.

Duke star forward Kyle Filipowski needed to be helped off the court with a knee injury on Saturday after he collided with some Wake Forest fans storming the court, and he said after the game that the sequence felt personal.

“I absolutely feel like it was personal,” Filipowski said of the incident after the game in a video posted by WFMY News 2’s Brian Hall. “Intentional, for sure.”

Fans across the nation tried to analyze the video, which appeared to show a fan colliding with Filipowski’s knee and the Duke player extending his arms out toward the fan, to decide how everything went down. The Duke 7-footer had his thoughts on the matter.

“There’s no reason where they see a big guy like me trying to work my way off the court and they can’t just work around me, you know?” he added.

Filipowski also shared his thoughts on court-storming after the game, posting the phrase “This gotta change…” on the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter).

Filipowski said after the game that his knee was injured during the sequence.

Wake Forest fans stormed the court after Duke upset and seemingly injured Blue Devils’ Kyle Filipowski

Wake Forest fans storming the court on Saturday resulted in Duke’s Kyle Filipowski being injured.

An upset victory for the Wake Forest men’s basketball team against ACC rival Duke on Saturday quickly changed its tenor after a player was seemingly injured during the ensuing court-storming by Wake Forest fans.

Duke standout center Kyle Filipowski sprained his ankle, coach Jon Scheyer said, after he got caught in the large group of fans storming the court at Wake Forest’s Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Demon Deacons fans stormed the court as soon as the clock hit zero, which did not allow for Filipowski to get off the court in time to avoid the rushing crowd. He was helped off by his Duke teammates after he got caught up in the mayhem.

An overhead video from ESPN shows that purposeful contact might’ve been made during the sequence where Filipowski was injured.

Scheyer lamented about Filipowski’s injury in his postgame press conference and called for court-storming to be banned.

Filipowski felt that the contact was intentional on behalf of Wake Forest fans.

Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes joined Scheyer in condoning the court-storming that left Filipowski injured.

Filipowski is the second high-profile college hoops player to be injured during a court-storming. Iowa women’s basketball sensation Caitlin Clark collided with an Ohio State fan storming the court in January.

If Filipowski misses significant time, it will only further the calls for the ACC (and the NCAA at large) to better regulate, or ban altogether, storming the court in college basketball.

College basketball analysts and fans had plenty of thoughts about this unfortunate incident.

Duke coach Jon Scheyer calls for a court-storming ban after Kyle Filipowski’s injury

“When are we going to ban court-storming?” Jon Scheyer said after Kyle Filipowski was injured amid celebrating Wake Forest fans.

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.

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.”

Afterward on Twitter, Filipowski seemed to agree with his coach.

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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Social media reacts to Filipowski’s injury during the Wake Forest court storming.

Social media had plenty of thoughts after Duke star Kyle Filipowski needed to be helped off the court after colliding with Wake Forest fans after the game.

Duke lost its third game since December 2 on Saturday afternoon, a road loss to a surging Wake Forest team, and social media had lots of thoughts on the game.

Wake Forest guard and former Gonzaga Bulldog Hunter Sallis made 11 of his 13 shots from the field, finishing with a game-high 29 points. The Blue Devils turned the ball over multiple times in high-octane possessions, including a killer one down two points in the final five seconds.

The game quickly gotten forgotten, or at least moved down the headline list, once the final buzzer sounded, however. Star forward Kyle Filipowski hurt his knee after colliding with some Demon Deacons fans when they stormed the court after the game.

Here are some of social media’s thoughts on the stunning post-game sequence.