Duke head coach Jon Scheyer was understandably upset after his fourth-ranked Blue Devils lost on the road to No. 14 North Carolina 71-68 on Saturday night.
But it wasn’t the score that had him fired up in his postgame news conference in Chapel Hill, N.C.
According to Scheyer, after fans stormed the court following the Tar Heels’ win on Seth Trimble’s 3-pointer with less than a second left, members of his staff were punched by people storming the court.
“For me, it’s hard for me to talk about the game when I was most concerned just for the safety of our players after the game,” he said. “I don’t want to make it about that because Carolina, they played a great game to win, and that’s a heartbreaking loss for our team.
“I got staff members that got punched in the face. My family pushing people away, trying to not get trampled. And that’s not what this game is about. You give them all the credit in the world. It’s not about the game, but obviously that was a scary ending, and this rivalry is not about that.”
North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham told reporters after the game that he apologized to Scheyer.
“When they rushed the court, a number of people got knocked over,” Cunningham said, noting that because there actually was time left on the clock, fans had to leave the court for Duke to run another play before the final buzzer and another rush to the court. “But then we had to clear the court again. So, when we normally have something like just rushing the court and the game is over, we do have a line by the benches to get people off safely.”
Cunningham also said the university would review video of the court-storming to determine what exactly happened.
“Obviously, if somebody got injured, that’s just really, really disappointing,” Cunningham added. “We’ll do the best we can to make sure that doesn’t happen, but again, my apologies to Duke for that.”
Scheyer made it clear he is not against fans storming the court but rather wants players and staff helped off the court safely.
But the incident brought back memories of two years ago when Kyle Filipowski, then a star center on Duke’s team, sustained a sprained ankle after Wake Forest fans stormed the court to celebrate a win over the Blue Devils.
“When are we gonna ban court storming? When are we gonna ban that,” Scheyer said immediately after that incident on Feb. 24, 2024. “How many times does a player have to get into something where they get punched or get pushed or get taunted right in their face. It’s a dangerous thing.”
