Sports journalist: Court storming is a ‘dangerous situation’
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Duke basketball star Kyle Filipowski is walking away with an injured knee after a Wake Forest fan collided with him while storming the court, and many people are calling for added safety measures.
The incident with Filipowski is not the first this year to call attention to court storming. Caitlin Clark was thrown to the ground when a fan at the Ohio State game collided with her while running on the court and looking at a cellphone.
“I don’t think anyone plans it, but also it’s a dangerous situation,” said Will Carroll, a sports journalist.
Carroll writes about athletic injuries as a sports journalist. He says schools need to have better plans in place and increased security teams during these high-profile games.
“If you can just delay it by 5 seconds, let the teams get to the sidelines, let the guys run off the court,” Carroll said. “Security guards holding you back for a few seconds.”
Purdue head coach Matt Painter called out the court-storming practice at a post-game news conference against Nebraska in January where fans stormed the court.
“So we’ve gotta do something about the court storms, guys. I don’t know what. Institutions aren’t ready for it. Like what did you think was going to happen if they won? Like, spread the word. Spread the word before somebody gets hurt. You know, a student from Nebraska should be able to storm the court, right? We’re cool, but just get ready for it, because someone’s gonna get hurt. Someone’s gonna get hurt. It could be a student, it could be one of Nebraska’s guys, it could be one of our guys, it could be someone working the score bench, it could be anybody. But, I don’t know why people don’t get ahead of it. All right? It’s happened a lot and I just don’t understand that.”
Carroll also takes issue with putting up barriers and says, if fans stormed the court and pushed them over, it could cause someone to trip and be trampled. “Building walls and barriers and cages, that’s where you talk about being carried into it, somebody could get crushed.”
In an email to News 8, the NCAA said, “During regular-season competition, the host school/conference handles security inside a venue.”
It is not just coaches and commentators calling out the practice. Filipowski himself posted on social media saying “This gotta change…” after his injury.