Jay Bilas shares how to stop court storming in college basketball
Court storming in college basketball is a hot topic at the moment after Duke center Kyle Filipowski was banged up when Wake Forest fans stormed the court after Saturday’s win over the Blue Devils.
Everyone seems to agree that something needs to change, but there are differing opinions on what should be done.
ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas believes there is a simple way to get rid of court storming, but he’s not sure that that’s what college administrators really want to do.
“If they wanted to stop it, they could stop it tomorrow,” Jay Bilas said Monday on First Take. “All you would have to do, is while they’re on the court, don’t let them off. Just say, ‘You’re all detained.’ And give them all citations, or arrest them, if you want to. And then court stormings will stop the next day.”
It is an interesting idea from Bilas and one that would likely work. Bilas feels that everyone has played a role in court storming becoming so popular, but he’s not sure everyone is on the same page with doing away with it.
“The NCAA and the member institutions will say ‘Player safety is No. 1. There’s nothing more important than player well-being.’ But that’s simply not true, because they’re continuing to allow this and they’re encouraging it,” Bilas said. “And the truth is, we’re encouraging it in the media. We put court stormings at the end of every highlight. We’re encouraging it. Even though it’s banned in the SEC… the institutions are happy to pay it, because they like the visual. They like having the pictures to show and ‘here’s how passionate we are and here’s what we’re about.’”
Bilas made it clear that he believes court stormings should end, but he also doesn’t expect anything to change.
Despite the injury to Kyle Filipowski, he expects storming the court to continue for years to come.
“t’s been time for a long time. Fans don’t belong on the court – ever. And players don’t belong in the stands. It’s a pretty simple proposition,” Bilas said.
“There’s no accountability for this. The fans feel like it’s an entitlement. And the universities like it, and the truth is we like it. Years ago, when fans would run out on the field or on the court during a game, it was network policy not to show that, because we didn’t want to encourage it. So what does that say about the way we in the media use these images now? We can’t deny that we encourage it. … Everybody has to accept some responsibility for this. I don’t think it’s the right thing to allow this, but I know it’s going to continue. This is not going to stop.