"$500,000 fine in place for first offense:" ESPN analyst proposes interesting idea to stop court storming incidents post Duke's Kyle Filipowski injury
ESPN analyst Jimmy Dykes has proposed an idea to prevent court storming incidents from happening in the future.
The basketball analyst suggested a $500,000 fine for the school that committed the violation for the first time and $1,000,000 if the institution repeats the act.
Dykes, who once coached the Arkansas women's basketball team before resigning in 2017, added that the state government where the university is located should organize a staff meeting the day after the incident took place and formulate a plan to ensure that it won't happen again.
"You put a $500,000 fine in place for first offense and 1 million for next, and every administration in country will have a staff meeting tomorrow morning with a plan in place to ensure no court storm occurs," Dykes wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
The analyst followed that up with another tweet, suggesting the fine should be donated to the opposing schools' Name Image and Likeness.
Dykes made these recommendations days after Wake Forest fans stormed the court after their team upset No. 8 Duke, 83-79, in a game held on Saturday. A fan collided with Duke center Kyle Filipowski and the latter was left hobbling after the incident.
Filipowski incident showed the need for stricter crowd control
The incident caused widespread talk across the US about the dangers of court storming and pundits were calling for schools, sports sanctioning bodies and the local government to act immediately to avoid similar incidents from taking place in the future.
A month before, Iowa women's superstar Caitlin Clark collided with a phone-carrying Ohio State fan. Clark was visibly shaken after the incident and had to be escorted by her teammates and authorities to the locker room.
Duke coach Jon Scheyer aired his concern, saying such incidents cause danger to a player.
"How many times does a player have to get into something, where they get punched, or they get pushed, or they get taunted right in their face? It's a dangerous thing," Scheyer said.
Purdue Boilermakers coach Matt Painter urged the league to come up with improved safety measures to prevent court storming-related injuries from happening.
"A student from Nebraska should be able to storm the court, right? We're cool, but get ready for it if that's what you're going to do. Spread the word before somebody gets hurt," he said.
Read more: Wake Forest Director of Athletics offers sincere apology for court storming issue injuring Duke's Kyle Filipowski