Should Jon Scheyer have pulled Duke off court early at Wake Forest? UNC’s Williams did it

The situation didn’t match up Saturday at Wake Forest, but Duke basketball coach Jon Scheyer admitted he needs to seriously consider removing his players from the court ahead of a court-storming stampede of visiting fans.

One Hall of Fame coach did just that a dozen years ago.

On Jan. 14, 2012, with Florida State on its way to a 90-67 win over No. 3-ranked North Carolina in Tallahassee, Florida, Tar Heels coach Roy Williams took most of his team to the locker room. Five seldom-used players, including three walk-ons, played the final 14 seconds of the lopsided game before joyous Seminoles fans rushed the Tucker Center’s court.

“I was just trying to protect our team,” Williams said that day.

Two days later, the News & Observer reported at the time, UNC basketball spokesman Steve Kirschner said Williams did not mean to leave the five reserves to fend for themselves. He thought they would also follow him to the locker room.

The subject is fresh again after Duke sophomore forward Kyle Filipowski suffered a knee injury when a Wake Forest students collided with him as he attempted to exit the playing surface Saturday at the Joel Coliseum.

On Saturday, minutes after the game ended, Scheyer initially said he should have removed his team.

“I should have,” Scheyer said. “That’s a mistake on my part.”

But, the more he thought about the situation, he said it didn’t make sense in that game. Duke trailed by four points and had possession with two seconds left. Even though the Blue Devils were in-bounding the ball on the opposite end of the court from its basket, Scheyer wasn’t ready to concede.

“You’re still trying to hope that somehow you can fouled at the end,” Scheyer said. “I’m never going to give up in a game. You want to do everything you can do to give yourself the chance.”

That’s a different scenario from what Williams and UNC faced at Florida State in 2012, where the Seminoles had a lead so large a comeback was impossible.

Back then, Williams also had another situation fresh in his mind. When UNC lost at UNLV earlier that season, a female manager was knocked down in a court storm.

“Let’s make sure that we understand that I was not trying to embarrass Florida State by pretending that they could not control the crowd,” Williams said in 2012. “That’s not what I was trying to do at all. I was just trying to protect our team. We had an ugly incident at Las Vegas and one of our female managers got knocked down.”

On Monday, Scheyer said leaving reserves in wouldn’t have been optimal either.

“What, their well being isn’t worth the same as a starter or a guy that’s playing more minutes?” Scheyer said.

In 2012, Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton suggested Williams take his team to safety early. On Saturday, Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes said he attempted to get Scheyer’s attention to tell him to skip the post-game handshake so they could get safely to the locker room.

But Wake Forest’s fans were on the court so quickly, Scheyer said, it wouldn’t have mattered.

“When I played, it was at least 10 seconds before they stormed the court,” Scheyer said. “Now, the buzzer doesn’t even go off and they’re they’re running on the floor. This has happened to us a bunch this year.”

That’s why Scheyer wants court stormings banned, no matter if the game’s lopsided score allows him to get his team off the court in time or not.

“At the end of the day,” Scheyer said, “players and coaches and officials are the only people that belong on a court.”