Jay Bilas on why Kyle Filipowski situation won't change court stormings: 'We in the media like the visual'

Court stormings have become the talk of college basketball on Saturday. Wake Forest earned a season-defining win against Duke but while fans were rushing onto the floor, Kyle Filipowski suffered an injury and was helped off. Filipowski later revealed his knee is what got banged up but no specifics were given.

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.”

Jay Bilas continues to share his strong feelings on court-storming

Saturday was not the first time Bilas has spoken out against court-storming. He has been vocally against it throughout the entire season. Filipowski’s injury did not change his stance.

“The passion of it is great. I like the passion. Fans do not belong on the court. Ever,” Bilas said on Jan. 27.

“And players don’t belong in the stands. Remember years ago when Marcus Smart went into the stands and everybody had a conniption fit over it. Players don’t belong in the stands. Fans don’t belong on the court. And in the Southeastern Conference, the conference has deemed that a violation that will cost you a fine of $100,000. South Carolina stormed the court and the President Emeritus ran out and promoted him running out on his own social media channel,” the ESPN college basketball commentator continued.

“They don’t care. We’ll pay it just for the visual and we’ll put the pictures up in the locker room and all that stuff. For recruiting. We love it (ESPN). We put it on TV at the end of every highlight we’ve promoted. All media companies do. When somebody gets hurt, we’re gonna get serious about it. But until then, they don’t do it. When was the last time you saw court storming in an NFL game. Field storming in an NFL game? The NBA? Major League Baseball. They don’t do it. They protect the players and we don’t do it in college,” Bilas finished.