By Brendan Marks, Dana O'Neil and Nicole Auerbach
The floodgates burst before the final buzzer sounded.
But given the record crowd at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Saturday, perhaps that shouldn't have been a surprise. Nearly 15,000 Wake Forest fans packed into the building to watch their team take on No. 8 Duke — and hopefully witness another victory that would cement the Demon Deacons as an NCAA Tournament team. Imagine the excitement back then, during the final timeout of the game, with 1.8 seconds left, when they were on the verge of an 83-79 home win.
That…and a cathartic, chaotic celebration.
When Duke's ensuing inbounds pass was intercepted, that was all the Students needed. Wake Forest fans immediately swarmed the floor and ran to join the mosh pit that formed in the middle of the field. One problem, however: Duke star Kyle Filipowski hadn't left the field before the celebration broke out – and several fans came into contact with him while they were running at full speed. It appeared as if Filipowski was turned and then injured before a Duke manager reached him in the rush, forming a human barrier against the raging courthouse storm. Soon, other Duke staff and players joined in, protecting Filipowski as he limped off the ground.
GO DEEPER
Duke star Kyle Filipowski was injured when Wake Forest fans stormed the court
When Duke coach Jon Scheyer arrived at his postgame press conference, he was fuming.
“When will we ban court storms?” asked Scheyer. “For example, how many times does a player have to get into something where they're hit, pushed or teased right in the face? It’s a dangerous thing.”
After a second clash between a high-profile athlete and a fan in about a month — Iowa star Caitlin Clark was knocked down on Jan. 21 after Ohio State upset Clark's Hawkeyes — Scheyer's question is being asked at every level of college athletics. Field rushes have long been among the most iconic images in college basketball, but have come under increasing criticism due to potential concerns about player safety. “Who in their right mind,” Scheyer added, “can see that and say, ‘Yes, that’s smart?’” He’s not alone in that feeling. That's why everyone in the basketball industry, from coaches to administrators to conference officials, must now answer the following:
Can a time-honored tradition be preserved through tweaks…or is it time to ban courthouse storms once and for all?
“There's a difference between trying to stop rushing on the field and trying to prevent injuries,” Butler athletic director Barry Collier said. “I would prefer if we pursued the latter and then I think we would be in a better place.”
This isn't the first time there's been public — or private — backlash to the courthouse storm. This has been debated among college basketball shareholders for decades.
In 2004, the debate erupted after Arizona high school student Joe Kay was accidentally trampled during a courtroom storm; Kay suffered a stroke and a ruptured carotid artery, leaving his right side partially paralyzed. In 2013, NC State's CJ Leslie had to lift a wheelchair-bound fan (who had fallen from his chair during a court storm) from the crowd to protect him. Then, in 2015, Kansas State fans nearly trampled Kansas coach Bill Self after a surprising home win over the Jayhawks. (In the same incident, a student threw an elbow at Kansas forward Jamari Taylor and a KU assistant coach put another fan in a headlock.)
Storming the court after Nebraska beats Purdue pic.twitter.com/wkxdX6Sex2
— Sam McKewon (@swmckewonOWH) January 10, 2024
After No. 1 Purdue lost at Nebraska on Jan. 9 — and endured a now-standard storm on the field — Boilermakers coach Matt Painter set the tone. “Someone’s going to get hurt,” Painter said, almost prophetically. “Could be a student. Could be one of the guys (the opponent). Could be one of our guys. Could be someone sitting on the scorer's bench. Could be anyone – but I don’t know why people don’t pick up on it. A lot has happened and I just don't understand it.” After the incidents with Clark and Filipowski – two of the most famous players in their respective games – there is now a renewed push for change.
But will anything come of it?
Regardless of which side of the Court Storm argument you fall on – whether you think they deserve to be protected as part of the student/fan experience or whether you think they are too dangerous and should be banned – the logistical issues involved are difficult entry points for change. For example: How do you enforce a ban on court storms if such a thing ever happens? “It’s very difficult to stop the stampede,” Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione said. “Some of the security experts may even tell you that in some cases it is safer to get out of the way than to create an even worse situation.”
As a precautionary measure, many leagues require their schools to provide safety plans before sporting events, but effective enforcement of these plans is hit and miss. (In some cases, what use is a thin rope to quell a mob of young adults?) Certain conferences also enforce disciplinary measures, such as fines, to discourage the practice. For example, beginning with the 2023-24 sports calendar, the SEC implemented a tiered system of fines: $100,000 for first-time violations, $250,000 for the second time, and $500,000 for all subsequent incidents.
However, so far these have not been effective deterrents; The league just fined LSU $100,000 for court storming after its blowout win over Kentucky last week. (The ACC is the only high-major league that does not fine teams for court storming.) Boosters or fans who start GoFundMe accounts have paid many of those fines; The actual field forwards – mostly students – face no real punishment, unlike the unruly fans who are attacked and often arrested when they run onto the field at professional games.
“They are almost a badge of honor for those who rush to court,” Collier said of the fines.
Harsher penalties were also considered, but failed to prevail.
“What if you made the home team forfeit the game because their fans stormed the field or pitch? We've certainly talked about that,” said Jeremy Hammond, SEC deputy commissioner and head of the league's event security task force. “But I don't think there was a desire in our office or among our members and their leadership to punish the student-athletes in this way for something that they had no part in and that they have no control over… There's that something that died on the vine.”
What options are there realistically to prevent these situations from happening again?
A sensible starting point is better communication with the people involved: the fans. When Kansas State coach Jerome Tang took over before last season, he told the Wildcats' fan base that they would have a court storm this season. “If you want to build a championship culture and expectation, you have to take the measures before the championships happen,” Tang said. “So I told them, hey, you guys have the No. 1 spot up front — but from now on, let's go assume we win.” Earlier this season, the Wildcats were on the verge of beating top-10 rival Kansas, and Tang wasn't sure if fans still planned to rush the ball. So he and his staff waved them off before the final buzzer and told students not to do it.
Your Answer?
They…actually listened. Instead, Tang sent his players into the stands to celebrate with their teammates.
“I just feel like it's better for us to celebrate with them in the stands,” Tang added, “than for them to run around on the field.”
There is no reason why this type of communication can't happen everywhere. Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes said Saturday night after his team's win that he expects the school and its fans to handle the next situation like this better. “I don’t like storming courts – I’ve never taken part in them,” Forbes said. “They just don’t feel safe as coaches.”
Creighton fans storm the floor after last week's upset win over No. 1 UConn. (Steven Branscombe/USA Today)
This brings up another popular point of discussion, especially after the Filipowski incident: What role does a coach play in all this? For example, when Kansas was about to lose at Kansas State, Self pulled his players off the field a few seconds before the end to prevent problems. “I said, OK, guys, game over,” Self said. “Throw it down the field, everyone runs to the sideline.” Scheyer said after Saturday's game that despite his team being four points behind, he still had hope of a win. “Looking back,” he said, “I wish I had gotten those guys off the field. So I failed them in that regard.”
Tang said just as he has an assistant coach to monitor a team's fouls, in the future they may need another assistant to monitor a potential storm on the field. But there is a fine line between competition and security.
In addition, this type of preparation is not applicable in every situation. Real buzzer beaters, for example, have no setup time. They happen spontaneously, the pure joy of a single triumphant moment flooding the crowd all at once. “While you can probably mark on your schedule when something is going to happen, you don’t know when it’s going to happen,” Collier said. “You have to have a backup plan.” And that’s why, as important as communication is, a school’s specific game plan matters.
It is standard practice at most large schools for security guards or other security personnel to stretch a rope around the court (or part of it) after the game to deter potential strikers. According to Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor, the best-prepared schools, like Kansas State, even practice their postgame procedures the day before. “Before the big games,” Taylor added, “that could be court-storming.” Sometimes these security guards move in connection with a public announcement or a forwarded message to student section leaders. But at the same time, many people in the industry complain about the unreasonable financial and human costs associated with protecting against pitch storms at every single game – not to mention the potential problems of overzealous security guards or students rushing right at them.
“It's really complicated to have enough people to hold back a crowd like that,” Collier said. “We had enough people before, but the general rule was not to cause another physical altercation between security guards and the students. We’re talking about students here.”
Wake Forest, for example, entered Saturday as the betting favorite over Duke and had its first sellout in seven seasons. In such situations, storms on the field are easier to predict, but should schools bear the financial burden of additional staff for every single game?
“I think schools should be prepared whether they know it or not,” Self said. “You don’t hire fewer people because you think it might not work. You should always hire the same number of people.”
This is easier to say in secondary schools with more resources. For midsize leagues that rely on automatic bids to play in the NCAA Tournament, making that financial commitment for every major opponent that comes to town is less feasible.
Storming the pitch has become a tradition, a way for fans to celebrate big surprises or special occasions. They're featured all over “SportsCenter” and social media. This happens in football too, although there is much more space on a soccer field — where players already wear protective gear — than on a 94-foot-long basketball court. In some ways, these scenes are what differentiate college sports from professional sports.
“People are trying to find a balance between how can we not remove some of the fanfare and some of the great things about college sports, which comes with an underdog beating a team he wasn't supposed to be – and to weigh that against “Make sure everyone is safe,” Hammond said. “It’s a big challenge.”
Filipowski, whose right leg was wrapped in plastic and had an ice pack on his knee, told reporters that he sprained his knee in the excitement. Duke doesn't play again until Wednesday when it hosts ACC cellar-dweller Louisville. Scheyer did not want to comment on the status of his star player on Sunday.
But the sophomore forward, who leads Duke in scoring and rebounding, made it clear how he felt about the outcome.
“I absolutely feel like it was personal,” Filipowski told reporters. “They didn’t do anything to stop it. This is just ridiculous.”
Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the home school to protect not only its players, but also opposing players and officials. Wake Forest athletic director John Currie, who was also the Kansas State AD for the aforementioned Kansas incident in 2015, said in a statement that while the program had a plan for any postgame celebration, “we clearly do better.” to have to do”.
“I fully agree that something more needs to be done about the national phenomenon of court and field storms,” the statement continued, “and Wake Forest looks forward to being part of these conversations.”
We'll see if these conversations ever actually lead to action.
It's hard to stop the floodgates when they're already open.
— CJ Moore of The Athletic contributed to this story.
(Top photo of Wake Forest fans storming the field after Saturday's win over Duke: Grant Halverson / Getty Images)