INDIANAPOLIS — There's renewed concern about the safety of players and fans during court storming celebrations in college basketball. That comes after a Duke player was injured by a fan running onto the court at the buzzer as Wake Forest upset Duke on Saturday in Winston Salem, North Carolina.
No one in college basketball knows more about court storming than Purdue head coach Matt Painter. Every time his team has lost on the road in the past two seasons, the opponent's fans have run onto the court to celebrate beating the highly-ranked Boilermakers.
Painter made his concerns for safety known back on Jan. 9 when Nebraska beat Purdue.
"Someone's going to get hurt,” Painter said right after that game. “It could be a student, could be one of Nebraska's guys, could be one of our guys, could be someone working the scorer’s bench, could be anybody. But I don't know why people don't get ahead of it, alright? It's happened a lot and it's just ... I don't understand that."
Painter said the student fans should be allowed to celebrate, but arena security needs to be better prepared to protect everyone involved.
“You got to have order,” said Painter. “You got to get a rope. You got to get police officers. You got to get people around and protect your own, protect us, protect them, protect the fans."
Painter now sounds like a prophet.
On Jan. 21, Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark collided with a court-storming fan at Ohio State. Clark was not injured but had the wind knocked out of her.
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On Saturday, Duke big man Kyle Filipowski was caught in the middle of a mob of Wake Forest fans rushing onto the court as time expired. A fan collided with Filipowski's right leg. His teammates and coach had to wade into the crowd to help him hobble off the court. He suffered a sprained knee.
"When are we going to ban court storming?” asked Duke head coach Jon Scheyer in the postgame news conference. “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."
Indiana High School Athletic Association Commissioner Paul Neidig has watched the recent court storming in college basketball with great concern.
"I always worry about the safety of the student-athletes, because I've seen just a lot of really close calls over the years,” said Neidig. “But I often think about that I think all those types of things are preventable."
Neidig said the safety of the competitors is always the responsibility of the home team, or the host team in a state tournament. Schools that have court-storming problems can be reprimanded and called into the state association office to discuss correctable actions to improve event safety.
The IHSAA does allow what might be considered controlled court storming in the sectional, regional, and semi-state championships.
"We're going to celebrate with this team, but we're going to do it in an orderly fashion and here's how it's going to happen,” said Neidig. “We're going to let the other team leave the court, they're going to shake hands, and then we'll walk out on the floor and celebrate with your teammates or your school and the teams that played the game here today.”
No fans are allowed to run onto the court when the clock hits zero. The student fans are instructed to wait until the trophy is presented to join their team on the court in the celebration.
The NCAA says that security issues are in the hands of the host university and conferences during the regular season. Some, but not all, college conferences impose a fine for court storms and graduated punishment for repeat offenses.