Wake Forest AD John Currie addresses court storming, injury to Duke's Kyle Filipowski

Wake Forest athletic director John Currie addressed the court storming and resulting injury that Duke star center Kyle Filipowski sustained against the Demon Deacons on Saturday. He also shared a desire to see court storming curbed.

Along with staking out that stance — in agreement with Duke head coach Jon Scheyer — Currie expressed regret for the incident in a statement released on Saturday evening. The statement also acknowledges the ACC has been involved in the discussions since.

“On behalf of Wake Forest, we sincerely regret the unfortunate on-court incident following this afternoon’s men’s basketball game and hope the involved Duke student-athlete is doing better,” Currie said. “I called Duke Vice President and Director of Athletics Nina King and ACC Senior Associate Commissioner Paul Brazeau immediately after the game and expressed our sincere regret for the situation and our concern for the Duke student-athlete’s well-being.”

Currie also promised that more will be done at Wake Forest and stated his agreement with Scheyer.

“Although our event management staff and security had rehearsed postgame procedures to protect the visiting team and officials, we clearly must do better,” Currie said. “I appreciate the postgame comments of Duke Head Coach Jon Scheyer and I am in complete agreement that something more must be done about the national phenomenon of court and field storming and Wake Forest looks forward to being a part of those conversations.”

Wake Forest has been a beacon for criticism after the injury

To ESPN’s Seth Greenberg, the blame fell at the feet of Wake Forest officials who were in charge.

“The Wake Forest administration dropped the ball,” Greenberg said at halftime of the North Carolina vs. Virginia game. “You have to have a plan in place. If you’re playing this game and you’re expecting to win, you’ve got to hire extra security, you’ve got to have a plan in place to make sure these players get off the court safely.

“Whether it’s create a blockade with your security so the students on both ends can’t get on the court. But you’ve got to have something in place.”

Before he worked at ESPN, Greenberg was the head coach at Virginia Tech from 2003-12. He recalled an example from his penultimate season at the helm – appropriately, against Duke – to illustrate what he thinks administrations should do to protect players and fans when court-stormings happen.

“We played Duke – College GameDay game, my next-to-last year. Fortunate enough to win,” Greenberg said. “The day before, there was a full plan and a meeting where they had exactly what was going to happen. ‘If we’re fortunate enough to win this game, X, Y and Z.’ And you know what? Virginia Tech executed it absolutely perfectly.

“Wake Forest and their administration, shame on you because you should’ve had something in place to make sure – most important thing, the security of the visiting team. End of story.”