Injuries intensify college basketball court storming debate - ESPN

Just over a month after Iowa women's basketball star Caitlin Clark collided on the court with an unidentified woman amid an Ohio State victory celebration, Duke's Kyle Filipowski was injured Saturday as a wave of Wake Forest fans rushed their home court after the Demon Deacons' 83-79 defeat of the No. 8 Blue Devils.

A fan ran into Filipowski, and the Duke star hobbled off the court with help from teammates. «This gotta change...,» Filipowski posted on X after the game. Duke coach Jon Scheyer called for court storming to be banned, and Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes agreed.

Said Scheyer: «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.»

It's a question that has emerged with renewed urgency this college basketball season as several stars in the men's and women's games have been caught in the middle of storms. While scenes of masses of jubilant fans running onto a court date back to at least the black-and-white film days of the 1950s, in the modern version, fans spill onto the court and exultant participants, marketing-conscious schools and consumer-driven media outlets excitedly share the video.

Official statistics aren't available, but according to an ESPN review, there have been about three court storms a week over the past three months in college basketball. In a three-hour span on Feb. 21, there were episodes in Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Rarely has anyone gotten hurt, but a 2004 court storm resulted in Arizona high school star Joe Kay suffering a stroke that left him partially paralyzed.

In December, Purdue men's coach Matt Painter and his top-ranked Boilermakers lost at Northwestern. A