Storming the court is something that every college student should experience once in their life. After a ginormous win, people’s first instinct is to jump onto the court and celebrate with the team. The crowd that willed the team to a victory gets to join in on the thrill of winning with the team on the court. However, there have been many incidents in the last couple of months that have made people reconsider whether or not crowd storming should still be a thing.
Iowa Hawkeye basketball legend Caitlin Clark was taken out by a charging fan during a loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes. That was the first incident which caused people to reconsider the court storming phenomenon. She was temporarily injured due to the impact caused by the fan and caused an uproar in the sports community. People talked about it for a while and then quickly forgot about it; a theme that is often repeated in sports media.
The silence was broken when Duke Blue Devils star Kyle Filipowski was trucked during the crowd storming by the Wake Forest Demon Deacons fans after they upset the No. 8 team on Saturday. Filipowski could barely walk as he limped off the court to the locker room. This sent the sports world into an absolute frenzy. People started comparing Filipowski to Clark and called for court storming to be banned altogether.
Court storming has been a college tradition for a long time. Fans enjoy it and it is something that possesses an energy unlike anything else. Unfortunately, if nothing changes, it would be in the best interest of the NCAA to officially ban it. It is a fun activity, but it is not something that should interfere with anyone’s health. Storming the court is something that should be reserved exclusively for major games. Teams that have been historically good should not rush the court because of a minor upset over a non-conference team. Even for big rivalries, court stormings should be sparse. The phrase “act like you’ve been there before” has been thrown around lately and it is true. If you are a fan of a team, don’t put people’s lives at risk. Part of enjoying sports is allowing the athletes playing to stay healthy. If people can’t figure out how to storm the court without injuring athletes, it might be time to hang up the tradition for good.
