Kyle Filipowski calls for change after being injured in court storming vs. Wake Forest

Duke big man Kyle Filipowski is calling for the rules on court storming to change. The Blue Devils forward suffered an injury Saturday afternoon after running into a Wake Forest fan who was storming the court after the Demon Deacons’ 83-79 upset victory.

The incident sparked debate across college basketball fans as to whether the longstanding tradition of court storming should be allowed. Some argued it should be banned altogether, while others wanted it to stay but suggested increased security measures to protect opposing players.

Filipowski himself took to Twitter after the game to weigh in with his opinion.

“This gotta change,” he wrote.

This gotta change…

— Kyle “Flip” Filipowski (@kylefilipowski) February 24, 2024

Some conferences such as the SEC have policies in place to issue fines when fans of a team storm the court. However, the ACC does not fine its teams for court storming.

This isn’t the first time that the issue of player safety has arisen as a result of fans storming the court. Iowa women’s basketball star Caitlin Clark also collided with a fan after the Hawkeyes were upset by Ohio State in January. Fortunately, Clark was not seriously injured but was a bit shaken up afterward.

It’s unclear exactly how severe the injury to Filipowski is and whether it will cause him to miss any time. He commented after the game that he believed the fan intentionally targeted him.

“I’ve already heard that there’s some videos of getting punched in the back,” Filipowski said. “So I absolutely feel like it was personal, intentional, for sure. There’s no reason where they see a big guy like me trying to work my way off the court and they can’t just work their way around me. There’s no excuse for that.”

It’ll be interesting to see what response comes from the ACC in light of the situation, as well as whether it has any impact on court storming in the future.

Jay Bilas doesn’t believe court storming is going away despite Kyle Filipowski incident

ESPN’s Jay Bilas gave his take on the situation, saying storming the court is not going to stop. Even in a league like the SEC, where schools are fined $100,000 for violating — administrators do not seem to care about paying up.

Why? Because of the awesome visual it gives to capture the moment.

Bilas says it’s a problem inside of the media as well, saying the visual is important to his colleagues. Even if there had been no Filipowski injury on Saturday, you would have seen Wake Forest fans storming the court on highlight shows out there.

“It’s got to stop but it’s not going to,” Bilas said. “There’s no appetite in college basketball to stop it. The SEC has a rule against it but the institutions are happy to pay the fine because they like the visual. And the truth is, we in the media like the visual too.

“We put it at the end of every highlight. Years ago, when people used to run out on the field or on the floor, we wouldn’t show it. That was our policy. We don’t have that kind of policies with court stormings. We like it. It’s not stopping and it’s a shame.”

On3’s Griffin McVeigh contributed to this report.