Duke’s Filipowski injured when fans storm court at Wake Forest. Coaches, player react

Duke basketball coach Jon Scheyer angrily called for the ACC to ban court storming after one of his top players suffered a knee injury when Wake Forest students ran into him following Saturday’s game.

Video from the court storm showed several Wake Forest students made contact with Kyle Filipowski, Duke’s leading scorer, as they ran onto the court following the Demon Deacons’ 83-79 win over the No. 8 Blue Devils at Joel Coliseum.

Talking with a ice pack wrapped around his right knee, Filipowski said the contact was clearly intentional.

“There’s some videos of me getting punched in the back,” Filipowski said. “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 that they can’t just work around you. There’s no excuse for that.”

Scheyer’s team has seen home fans storm the court following losses at Arkansas and Georgia Tech this season. It’s a common occurrence when the Blue Devils lose away from Cameron Indoor Stadium.

But Scheyer wants more to be done to protect the visiting coaches and players.

“When are we going to ban court-storming?” Scheyer said. “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? It’s a dangerous thing.”

Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes concurred with Scheyer.

“I don’t like court stormings,’ Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes said. “I never have. I’ve been part of them before. Next time we’re going to have to do a better job of taking care of that situation.”

Later Saturday night, Wake Forest athletics director John Currie, having spoken to Duke athletics director Nina King and ACC basketball administrator Paul Brazeau, released a statement expressing regret for the incident.

“On behalf of Wake Forest, we sincerely regret the unfortunate on-court incident following this afternoon’s men’s basketball game and hope the involved Duke student-athlete is doing better,” Currie said in his statement. “I called Duke vice president and director of athletics Nina King and ACC senior associate commissioner Paul Brazeau immediately after the game and expressed our sincere regret for the situation and our concern for the Duke student-athlete’s well-being. Although our event management staff and security had rehearsed postgame procedures to protect the visiting team and officials, we clearly must do better.”

King confirmed Saturday night that she spoke with Currie and is also concerned about player safety in these situations.

“We need to address court storming,” King told the News & Observer, “and, most importantly, how to protect our opponents (in all arenas). This is a serious safety issue that has to be be a priority for protecting our players.”

ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips weighed in, as well.

“We have been and will continue to be, in contact with both Duke and Wake Forest regarding what happened following today’s game,” Phillips said in a statement. “Across college athletics, we have seen far too many of these incidents that put individuals at serious risk, and it will require the cooperation of all — including spectators — to ensure everyone’s well-being. As a conference, we will continually assess with our schools the best way to protect our student-athletes, coaches, and fans.”

In some situations, the home arena’s security team will surround the visiting team to protect them from the on-rushing fans. That’s been Virginia’s practice at John Paul Jones Arena in recent years, with security staff creating a human chain by locking arms to keep fans away from the visitors.

Scheyer said whatever Wake Forest had planned on Saturday did not help his team.

“People were there, but obviously not,” he said.

At the end of the game, Duke had the ball, trailing by four points after Wake Forest made two free throws with one second to play. The Blue Devils threw the ball in from under Wake Forest’s basket and fans began rushing the court as soon as the buzzer sounded.

In retrospect, Scheyer said, he should have removed his team from the court given the time and score situation.

“I should have,” he said. “That’s that’s a mistake on my part. You’re still trying to hope that somehow you can get foul at the end. I’m never going to give up on a game. You want to do everything you can do give yourself the chance. But, in retrospect, I wish I would have gotten those guys off the court.”

Forbes said he attempted to get Scheyer’s attention in the final seconds to tell him to skip the postgame handshake to get to safety. The Joel Coliseum visitors’ locker room is accessible via a tunnel directly behind the visiting team’s bench. But that doesn’t help the players who are on the court when the clock expires.

A few college leagues have rules in place aimed at preventing fans from entering the playing area.

The Southeastern Conference instituted a rule in 2005 that implements monetary fines against the offending school for not protecting visiting teams in those situations. Court and field stormings have still occurred in that league, but teams pay fines that begin at $100,000 for the first incident and escalate to $250,000 and $500,000 with subsequent offenses.

The Pac-12’s fine system is $25,000 for a first offense, $50,000 for the second and $100,000 for the third. The Big East fines its schools $5,000.

“I’m all on board with that,” Filipowski said of the rules aimed at preventing court stormings.

Last month, Iowa women’s basketball star Caitlin Clark was shaken up when a fan collided with her during a court storming following Ohio State’s home win over the Hawkeyes in Columbus, Ohio. The Big Ten doesn’t fine schools until a third offense.

The ACC has no such policy in place.

Filipowski said he knows part of playing for a high-profile, regularly successful team like Duke means going into charged-up road venues. But, he said, the players should be protected.

“There’s no court storming in Cameron, that’s for sure,” Filipowski said. “That’s the type of environment its going to be like for us in every road game we play. Just because everyone wants us to see us lose so bad. So just playing for Duke is even more of a challenge every road game.”

Duke’s next two games will be at Cameron Indoor Stadium, beginning Wednesday night against last-place Louisville. The Blue Devils only play one more road game this season — March 4 against N.C. State at PNC Arena in Raleigh.