Saturday night’s rivalry thriller between Duke and North Carolina ended in dramatic fashion on the court, but the postgame conversation was the thing I took away from the contest.
Following Duke’s loss and UNC’s court storm, head coach Jon Scheyer spoke about what he described as a ridiculous and concerning scene as players and staff attempted to get off the floor safely.
Scheyer made it known that his focus wasn’t the final possession or late-game execution, but it was safety for his team.
“It's hard to talk about the game when I was most concerned for the safety of our players,” Scheyer said, per NJ.com. “I don't wanna make it about that, but ... I got staff members that got punched in the face ... That's not what this game is about. That was a scary ending."
Court storming has long been part of college basketball, mainly in rivalry settings, but Scheyer’s comments are honestly fair. I don’t like that he was focused on them and not the game the whole postgame, but he’s right that this needs to be stopped.
With thousands of fans running onto the floor within seconds of the final buzzer (not really at this game), players and coaches are left trying to run out with a bunch of drunk college kids around them. It’s not safe.
"The bottom line, however people feel, that can't happen," Scheyer said. "The ACC needs to do something. There has to be something done to protect our guys. To protect not just our guys, but any team that's in that situation.
"We shouldn't wait until next year, something should be done right now."
From a player and staff safety standpoint, the answer is obvious about what should happen. Even for the winning team, I get why players like it, but I think we should ban court storming. Someone is going to get seriously hurt or worse one time and it’ll be the end of it. Why wait until now?
The energy, the passion, the excitement from fans is part of what makes college basketball special. However, when we have guys fearing for their safety, shouldn’t that be enough to not allow it?