The debate over court storming after NCAA basketball wins ignited to a new level Saturday when a Wake Forest fan rushing the court after the Demon Deacons’ 83-79 home win over No. 8 Duke made contact with Blue Devils’ center Kyle Filipowski. That drew discussion of ending the practice on the ESPN game broadcast, on the ESPN studio show, on CBS’ own college basketball studio show, and in many more online forums.
And Filipowski, who suffered a sprained ankle here, added more fuel still to that fire with post-game comments to Madelyn Ricket and Aaron Beard of Greensboro, NC CBS affiliate WFMY. There, he called the hit he took “intentional for sure“:
“I’ve felt a bunch of hits on my body. This one was the worst of them. Like I said, it’s just really ridiculous how that situation was handled. …I’ve already heard, based on videos of getting punched in the back, I absolutely feel like it was personal, intentional, for sure. 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. There’s no excuse for that.”
In addition to the broadcaster calls for change and the post-game comments from Duke HC Jon Scheyer (including “When are we going to ban court storming? It’s a dangerous thing”), Wake Forest AD John Currie has weighed in as well. In a statement, Currie said ” I appreciate the postgame comments of Duke Head Coach Jon Scheyer and I am in complete agreement that something more must be done about the national phenomenon of court and field storming.” But it’s perhaps particularly notable to see Filipowski chime in this way and claim the hit on him was intentional. That will likely intensify this conversation further still.
[WFMY]