A pair of sports analysts have essentially lost their minds in response to fans storming the court after significant college basketball victories.
The overreactions are utterly ridiculous following an incident in which Kyle Filipowski, a star player for the Duke Blue Devils, suffered a knee injury as fans rushed the court following a game against Wake Forest.
This video makes me physically sick watching the way Kyle Filipowski's knee was banged there….hopefully he will be ok. But something needs to be done. Wake failed to have the security in place…. pic.twitter.com/10NppE0foh
— Amy Murray (@VTDukefan) February 24, 2024
Look, I’m not saying some of the court storming isn’t ridiculous. Some fans rush the scene following a relatively tame victory over their rival. If you’re going to do it, it better be after a contest in which your team was a 38-point underdog, or a playoff game.
And yes, if you’re going to engage in that activity, maybe be careful not to bump into one of the players.
That said, ESPN’s Jay Bilas and Outkick’s hoops analyst Dan Dakich have seemingly gone off the deep end.
Bilas, who is ardently biased in Duke’s direction as a former player and does not hide it, whined that court storming fans need to be arrested.
“If they wanted to stop it, they could stop it tomorrow. The administrations will tell you the security experts tell them that it’s not a good idea to try to stop the court storming because that could cause more problems than it would solve,” Bilas said.
“But you don’t have to stop the court storming. One time, all you have to do is, once they’re on the court, don’t let them off. Just say, ‘You’re all detained,’ and give them all citations, or arrest them if you want to. And then court stormings will stop the next day.”
ESPN's Jay Bilas on court storming: "If they wanted to stop it, they could stop it tomorrow… You don't have to stop the court storming. One time, all you have to do is once they're on the court, don't let them off. Just say, 'You're all detained' and give them all citations or… pic.twitter.com/Bdbb0SZTDy
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 26, 2024
Get Those Court-Storming College Kids!
Dakich doesn’t quite go that far, but does suggest stocking the arena with more cops as a deterrent (sounds good) and some hefty fines.
How hefty?
“You’ve got to make it hurt,” Dakich said of penalties for court-storming. “You’ve got to make it a million.”
That’s right – a million-dollar fine for a college student celebrating their team’s victory. College kids eat Ramen noodles six days out of the week but sure, they’ll be paying out a million bucks.
Do I know what the answer is? Not quite. I do like the idea of added security to make fans think twice about rushing the court in a manner that could lead to injuries.
Perhaps securing the floor enough so that the players have enough time to get off the court before allowing fans to act like buffoons and, if they want to mosh pit themselves into the urgent care after that, go for it.
But I do know what the answer isn’t – arresting college kids and fining them a million dollars for getting overly excited.
— follow @cbbcontent (@BoogieWoogie690) February 24, 2024
Dakich, it should be noted, has a podcast with Outkick which recently defended court-storming against Bilas and another sportscaster, Bomani Jones, in particular.
“The crowd calling for court storming to be banned, which would erase the essence of college basketball, is very much the more disruptive group,” columnist Mark Harris writes.
“The folks wanting court storming to be banned are the same who like to see change simply for the sake of change and who overreact to every aspect of life.”
Harris also notes that videos of the Kyle Filipowski incident show the Duke star actually pushed a fan, appeared to trip him intentionally, and then sold the contact from another that would make NBA all-time flopper LeBron James jealous.
