Caitlin Clark court storming incident creates ripple effect in college basketball as multiple injury woes become talk of the town
The court-storming incident that left Iowa Hawkeyes guard Caitlin Clark shaken in Ohio has been brought up again after Duke center Kyle Filipowski suffered a knee injury on Sunday when he collided with a Wake Forest fan in another court-storming ruckus.
Clark collided with a woman who had rushed onto the court after the Hawkeyes lost to Ohio State. Both hit the floor but they stood up immediately.
However, the Iowa superstar commented afterward that the Ohio State fan could have injured her as she was "basically blindsided" by the hit.
Filipowski, on the other hand, was struck in the leg by a fan racing past him toward midcourt. On Monday, Duke head coach Jon Scheyer stated that the center's knee was "a little bit sore" but that he was fortunate to avoid a serious injury.
Coaches chime in on court-storming incidents
Various coaches have voiced their sentiments on the perils of court-storming to players and the crowd. UNLV coach Kevin Kruger believes that player safety should be the top priority.
"You love to see the excitement of a program. It’s part of college sports. But you somehow have to make sure everyone is safe or that there are really harsh penalties if that’s not the case," Kruger said.
Meanwhile, UNLV center Kalib Boone believes that crowd celebrations are a "great moment" and a "great experience," but it should be done safely.
Scheyer, on the other hand, urged the ACC to implement a policy that will ban court-storming in future games.
Weeks before the incident involving Clark, Purdue coach Matt Painter called for new policies to prevent court-storming incidents from happening in the future.
"We gotta do something about the court storms, guys. I don’t know why institutions aren’t ready for it. Like, what did you think was going to happen if they won? Like, spread the word. Spread the word before anyone gets hurt," Painter said.
ESPN college basketball analyst and former Duke player Jay Bilas had an intriguing view on the situation. Bilas suggested that all fans caught court-storming be detained or arrested.
"One time, all you have to do is once 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," he said on First Take.
Also Read: "$500,000 fine in place for first offense:" ESPN analyst proposes interesting idea to stop court storming incidents post Duke's Kyle Filipowski injury
It remains to be seen how the league officials look into and take substantial measures to avoid such incidents in the future.