Former K-State AD in the middle of another court storming gone wrong at Wake Forest

If you’re a college basketball fan you probably saw or heard about what happened after Wake Forest pulled off a dramatic victory over Duke on Saturday.

Wake Forest fans celebrated the win by storming the court, and the scene turned ugly when Duke forward Kyle Filipowski was engulfed in the scrum. He suffered a lower-body injury as fans collided with him while they sprinted onto the hardwood. Duke coaches and teammates had to rush to his aid and then help him walk to the locker room.

It quickly became a national story. So much so, that many are now calling for university leaders to end court storms.

“When are we going to ban court storming?” Duke coach Jon Scheyer asked immediately after the game at a news conference. “Like, 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.”

Wake Forest athletic director John Currie apologized on behalf of the Demon Deacons with a statement that said he was “in complete agreement that something more must be done about the national phenomenon of court and field storming.”

That may be of interest for basketball fans in this region, because he was also the AD at Kansas State when a court storming went poorly at Bramlage Coliseum in 2015.

Nearly a decade has passed since then, but there were definitely some similarities between when a K-State student deliberately collided with Kansas forward Jamari Traylor as he exited the floor following a big win for the Wildcats. K-State police later issued the student a notice to appear for disorderly conduct.

KU coach Bill Self and former K-State coach Bruce Weber were also pushed against the scorer’s table by fans as they ran onto the floor.

Much like what happened at Wake Forest over the weekend, the celebration completely overshadowed what happened in the game and became a huge story for all the wrong reasons.

Currie, who was the AD at K-State from 2009 to 2017, apologized back then, too.

“K-State prides itself on providing a great game atmosphere in a safe environment,” he said then, “and did successfully execute our security plan when we defeated KU last year in Bramlage as well as in 2011. Although no one was hurt last night, we fell short of our expectations for securing the court and escorting KU to its locker room without incident. We are disappointed that we did not do better.”

Compare that to the statement he issued over the weekend.

“On behalf of Wake Forest,” he said, “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,” Wake Forest athletic director John Currie said in a statement. Although our event management staff and security had rehearsed postgame procedures to protect the visiting team and officials, we clearly must do better.”

Anyone who remembers the court storming from the 2015 Sunflower Showdown experienced some level of deja vu when they saw the scene at Wake Forest on Saturday.

The fact that Currie was the AD for both home teams definitely made it feel like repeated history.