Storming the court

[XURunner85]

ESPN, just did a thing on storming the court...first one that really started it was the Notre Dame upset of #1 UCLA when they had the unbeaten streak broken. (I remember that game as a child, my whole family went crazy-my dad is an ND alum). They said it is just a way students really get into a great game, but that it can go bad. Standford won a game (forget who they said it was against) and Jim Plunkett's (former NFL QB) wife got trapped under her chair due to the students rushing the court. The SEC now fines schools who storm the court a $25000.00 fine, example South Carolina's upset this year of UK. I always hated that some schools we play and they upset us they storm the court no one stops them...but at the Cintas Center, there are such security around the floor that prevents this from happening....that is why I was so happy that Mack invited everyone to the floor after the St Bonnies game and after St Bonnies left the court to join in the celebration of the 4th A10 Championship in a row. I think it is cool if you could storm the court after a big win, but there is so much potential of a player (X or visiting team) to get hurt during this celebration, also for those storming to get hurt (always remember the WHO concert dowtown-my brother was supposed to be there when he went to X but had to work at the sports center). I think other venues need to step up security so storming doesn't happen, but I think coaches should take from Mack to let the fans on the court to celebrate after the other team leaves the court....I am I just getting old.....

[cutterX]

I just saw that too. I think they need to go back to the days where they put chicken wire or fence around the court. That would solve any problem of storming the court. Why do you think they called them cagers anyway?

[GoMuskies]

We always expect to win at home at Xavier. Storming the court should be very, very, very, very rare.

[An X Fan]

I cannot see a scenario where we'd storm the court at Cintas. Ever. We expect to win every time.

I was on the floor when we beat #1 UC in the last game at the Gardens. And I think Mo Mac or someone else tweaked something in the celebration.

That's the only sort of situation where I could see the court being stormed. And the chances of UC being #1 in the country again seem... remote...

[wkrq59]

A number of things make any storming or rushing the court absolutely forbidden as far as I'm concerned. There are a number of things I could suggest to prevent it, but I think the SEC has a good solution.
The potential for injury is very great, the damage to the floor from street shoes can often be extensive, reporters and broadcasters can have extremely valuable (for them) equipment wrecked. There is also the potential for a riot if opposing teams haven't cleared the floor. It is a bad practice and I believe ESPN and other broadcasting entities are irresponsible when they promote it.
Lets just stop it, period. It used to be something remarkable. Now it's just another hackneyed act, not worthy of being done.:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

[GuyFawkes38]

I'm carious Q, what does the SEC do to prevent it.

I'm guessing if the conferences forced schools to pay a fine, schools would beef up court side security.

[xubrew]

there are over 10,000 college basketball games in a season, and maybe sixty teams (if that) rush the court once or twice. that computes to roughly one half of one percent of the time. i don't think storming the court is getting out of control. i just think espn is there to show all sixty court stormings on a loop and give the impression that it is happening way too much.

btw, i love how they show it over and over again, and then claim it's happening far too often. it's condoning and condemning at the same time.

my experiences are somewhat different than pm thor's. a few years ago i was working at a school that was in a virtual one bid league, and who was hosting the conference championship game. we talked about it with each other, talked to some other teams in the conference, and talked to some other schools, and the conclusion we came to was that it was better to just let it happen. there was a better chance that someone would get hurt trying to keep them off the court than there would be if we just let them run out there, and that includes the security.

another thing we did was move the students who were behind the opponent's bench to the other side once it was late in the game and it looked like we would win.

to this day i think we made the right decision. it was fun for everyone involved. it was a situation that in the grand scheme of all of college basketball teams find themselves in less than one half of one percent of the time. the fans just wanted to celebrate and not torment or taunt the other team so there wasn't anything malicious going on.

xavier never rushed the floor at the cintas center, but they did after the 2006 tournament. from what i understand the security at usbank had the same approach. it was best to just let the fans on the court.

i will say this. it was ONE HELL of a court storming. to have handled it any other way would have made things much more dangerous...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mGPknhecsc&feature=related

[CinciX12]

Good God that was impressive.

[xubrew]

I'm carious Q, what does the SEC do to prevent it.

I'm guessing if the conferences forced schools to pay a fine, schools would beef up court side security.

they don't prevent it. schools have to pay a fine when it happens, but that doesn't prevent it. it just puts a dent in a few pocketbooks, that's all.