Another reason to think about banning "rushing the court"

[FerryFor50]

Fans brawl with players after NMSU/Utah Valley game

[Dr. Rosenrosen]

Roy will be ecstatic if he can finally stay on the floor with his full team for the entirety of every game.

[sporthenry]

Lost in all this will probably be K's comments about rushing the court that he got so much flak for last year. Probably only a matter of time with every win nowadays being cause for rushing the court. Will lead to banning sooner rather than later. Sad, b/c I like the rare court storming when TCU beats Kansas or BC beats 'Cuse but now it is just out of control. Most students see it as a rite of passage going to college.

[MChambers]

Penn State students stormed the court last night after beating #22 tOSU.

[JasonEvans]

New Mexico St has suspended the kid who threw the ball and started the whole thing. Ugly stuff.



-Jason "rushing the court is going to cause major injuries someday... pity because it is really fun!" Evans

[Dukehky]

It's a bunch of morons who want to feel like they're special because they get to go on the court and maybe get on TV. I hate it, I've always hated it. Football is a little different because football fields are huge, there is plenty of room for the other team to get out of the way. Basketball courts are different, you get 2,000 people on a basketball court and people can't freaking move.

I'm glad this happened. I wish that one of the fans would have gotten his face punched in though. It terrifies me every time Duke loses, because apparently outside of Syracuse, if you beat Duke, then you're rushing the court. I'm afraid some drunk kid is going to kick Jabari in the knee. I hope it gets banned tomorrow and I hope that kid that threw a punch as an assistant coach was pulling the player back gets sued or tried for assault.

I know the NMSU players aren't totally innocent, but wanna know how there wouldn't have been a brawl? If the fans had stayed the F in their seats.

[Wander]

Sad, b/c I like the rare court storming when BC beats 'Cuse but now it is just out of control

Well, that would have been a weird thing for Syracuse fans to do

[Bob Green]

I hope it gets banned tomorrow and I hope that kid that threw a punch as an assistant coach was pulling the player back gets sued or tried for assault.

This is a truly interesting comment, but I'm going to twist it a bit and talk about athletes, especially professional athletes, who engage in violence. Why aren't they prosecuted? Where else can an employee physically attack another employee and not get arrested, prosecuted or at an absolute minimum, immediately fired?

At some point in the not too distant future, work place violence standards will be enforced on professional athletes.

[throatybeard]

-Jason "rushing the court is going to cause major injuries someday... pity because it is really fun!" Evans

Someday like the UNC game sixteen years ago today; remember, that kid got elbowed in the face by Okulaja and he had to go to the hospital.

Duke basically has banned it--for several seasons, they have held those ropes around the court. To rush the court, and this would be possible, the kids would have to overpower the rope-holders. But we just beat the #1 team in the country, and it didn't happen.

[-jk]

Way Back When, we rushed the court after winning the ACC Championship. They tried to clear the court for the awards ceremony. We just sat and started chanting "Hell, no! We won't go!" In a very civilized way...

Or that's how I remember it.

-jk

[summerwind03]

Way Back When, we rushed the court after winning the ACC Championship. They tried to clear the court for the awards ceremony. We just sat and started chanting "Hell, no! We won't go!" In a very civilized way...

Or that's how I remember it.

-jk

I don't remember that, or hearing about it. What year was that?

[DU82]

I don't remember that, or hearing about it. What year was that?

1986. You must have been in another country across the pond.

[Newton_14]

New Mexico St has suspended the kid who threw the ball and started the whole thing. Ugly stuff.



-Jason "rushing the court is going to cause major injuries someday... pity because it is really fun!" Evans

Started it, caused it, etc. Court rushing (if u can even call this one that) had no part of this. It made it look worse, but unless I missed something, only players were fighting.

Ugly scene, but can't point the finger at court rushing on this one.

[Edouble]

Someday like the UNC game sixteen years ago today; remember, that kid got elbowed in the face by Okulaja and he had to go to the hospital.

Duke basically has banned it--for several seasons, they have held those ropes around the court. To rush the court, and this would be possible, the kids would have to overpower the rope-holders. But we just beat the #1 team in the country, and it didn't happen.

In his defense, Adi's elbow was protruding out in an attempt to beat himself, although I don't know why he couldn't have waited until he got to the locker room.

[Bluedevil114]

Started it, caused it, etc. Court rushing (if u can even call this one that) had no part of this. It made it look worse, but unless I missed something, only players were fighting.

Ugly scene, but can't point the finger at court rushing on this one.

Not true. If you study the tape it shows a fan in complete green throw a punch and then at the very end of the video you will see a player sucker punch that same fan.

[Dukehky]

Not true. If you study the tape it shows a fan in complete green throw a punch and then at the very end of the video you will see a player sucker punch that same fan.

There's so such thing as a sucker punch when you feel like you are fighting 10 vs. 300.

[Newton_14]

Not true. If you study the tape it shows a fan in complete green throw a punch and then at the very end of the video you will see a player sucker punch that same fan.

Hard to tell really. i rewatched it several times.There is a fan in all green (short guy) who is trying his best to push his fellow students away (most of whom were just running around like idiots trying to get as close to the actual player fighting as possible, but not actually fighting themselves)

My overall point remains. The court rush in no way triggered the melee. Had the player not thrown the ball, the visiting team exits the court without incident and the few fans that ran out on the court celebrate with their team.

The fans on the court made a bad situation worse, but I don't feel we see evidence in the video that suggests the fans started the fight. I think the fight happens even if no fans were on the court. I would like to see footage from a different angle.

As for allowing/disallowing court rushing, I have mixed feelings. Definitely agree it is dangerous, so no argument there. I just think if it happens only when the circumstances truly calls for it, then it would lessen the chances for disaster. One of the bigger issues with it right now is fans doing it too often. unc court rushing us last week is just laughable and shows the truly pathetic state of that school and program.

I would have no problem if they banned it though. At least with that and a fine, fans would not do it unless it was absolutely a game that called for it. I do fear for our players and consider us fortunate none of our players, coaches, or managers have been hurt. As much Duke hate as there is out there combined with us getting rushed in basically every road loss, it is amazing something bad has not happened.

[brevity]

There's so such thing as a sucker punch when you feel like you are fighting 10 vs. 300.

Zack Snyder, is that you?

The video makes clear that the end-of-game conflict and the court storming happen independently of one another. But having the fans on the court exacerbated the problem -- the level-headed people were focused on preventing player-on-player violence, not incidents between a player and a fan. There is such a thing as a sucker punch if you think you can get away with it, and that player (#25) took advantage of the crowd and confusion to make a move.

Rewatch the video and try to focus only on #25. In the beginning, he's the tallest player wearing red. He crosses the court to return to the bench quietly, basically ignoring the thrown ball incident that started all this. He looks almost blissfully unaware. Then, for whatever reason, he becomes aware of the fans congregating to the right and races along the top of the screen (0:15) to join the fray willingly, gets held back at the sideline (0:20), frees himself, disappears from camera view, and later runs into the crowd and lands a punch and runs away (0:26). Without the fans on the court, he doesn't get involved at all.

Two questions, though:

1. Where is the arena security? I don't see any jackets out there. Are they in plainclothes, or unaware, or just not there?
2. What's up with the red-faced guy in the gray suit? Is that the world's worst sunburn, or a giant gin blossom, or something more awesome?

[hurleyfor3]

This is a truly interesting comment, but I'm going to twist it a bit and talk about athletes, especially professional athletes, who engage in violence. Why aren't they prosecuted? Where else can an employee physically attack another employee and not get arrested, prosecuted or at an absolute minimum, immediately fired?

IANAL but there is a tenet that a professional athlete is to expect a certain level of violence by plying his craft. This is also the reason athletes don't sue for injuries that are incidental to the game, even if they were caused intentionally (hard fouls or tackles, beanballs, charging the mound, blocking the plate etc).

This is not unique to sports. For a few years I worked on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Fighting, hard shoving, throwing objects at and spitting on other people were routine. The exchange had its own system of fines, not too different from what professional sports leagues have, but it was rare for the police to be called in. (It did happen, but for stuff like drug dealing and some savory incidents I probably shouldn't discuss on DBR. Trading fraud involved the Feds and is a separate issue.)

At some point in the not too distant future, work place violence standards will be enforced on professional athletes.

Perhaps, but my point is that standard depends on the workplace.

[ElSid]

I'm 98% sure we stormed Coach K Court in 1996 after an unlikely victory over Carolina. Not sure if that was the last time, but I definitely recall being there. It was fun. I don't think it was so fun that I'd be disappointed in a ban on storming the court.

If the guy in the wheelchair at State had been seriously injured, I think it would be an even easier decision. Instead it became a (nice) human interest story about how the player acted quickly to help him out.

As a Duke fan, I'd be kind of disappointed that we would lose all that good PR of every single student body storming the court when we barely lose away games. The title of most hated school is a good one to maintain.