According to an ESPN review, college basketball has averaged “about three court storms a week over the past three months.” including this one Saturday at Winston Salem, N.C., where Wake Forest fans got raucous after a victory over Duke.
In 1994, Kelvin Sampson was a hot, up-and-coming young coach at Washington State, an underdog program in the Pac-10.
In the regular-season finale, his Cougars hosted California, which featured Pac-10 player of the year and future Hall of Famer Jason Kidd, as well as Lamond Murray, who would score 38 points that night to break his school’s all-time scoring mark.
A win for the Golden Bears meant their first conference championship in 34 years. Washington State, which had not been to the NCAA Tournament in 11 years and had gone only twice in school history, was on the bubble and desperate for a win to get in.
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Cal jumped to an 11-0 lead in the first couple minutes. Sampson’s squad wasn’t fazed. He told his players that since it wasn’t a three-minute game, they hadn’t lost yet.
The Cougars stormed back to a 94-82 victory. Their fans stormed the court.
In the midst of the celebration, Sampson jumped on top of the scorer’s table and took the microphone from the public address announcer.
“At 3:30 tomorrow, they’re going to announce the 64 teams that get to go dance!” Sampson yelled. “And guess what? The Cougars are dancing!”
Thirty years later, Sampson is no longer an up-and-coming or young head coach. His Houston Cougars are not an underdog program.
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But he is still hot.
On Monday, UH was voted the No. 1 team in the country by the Associated Press.
Now a grandfather, and not about to grab the mike and jump on the scorer’s table, surely Sampson’s thoughts on fans storming the court has changed, right?
Oh, you don’t know Sampson.
“I like storming the court,” Sampson said Monday. “I don’t like having the court stormed on me.”
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Sampson recognizes the potential danger involved with the time-honored tradition that has turned into a hot debate topic.
In recent weeks, star players Caitlin Clark of Iowa and Kyle Filipowski of Duke were both injured after colliding with opposing fans who rushed the court to celebrate upset victories. These incidents have ignited a national debate about the issue.
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Fans are rushing the court and field after basketball and football games more than ever. According to an ESPN review, there have been “about three court storms a week over the past three months in college basketball.”
The more storming, the more likely the possibility of injury.
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Fans stormed the court 10 times in the last 11 road losses Purdue suffered in the past three seasons.
“I wish they could find a way to safely get the kids off the floor,” Sampson said. “Holding them back for 30 seconds.”
Pause.
That could work. I’m imagining a huge countdown clock prior to the fun court attack.
An announcement that court-storming will commence at the second buzzer, half a minute after the game ends, would theoretically stem the tide and allow the visiting team to exit the floor.
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The NCAA has left postgame protocol to schools and/or conferences.
The Big 12 levies fines for court- and field-storming incidents, in accordance to its written “Principles and Standards of Sportsmanship” rules.
“There doesn’t need to be a rule for that,” Sampson said. “Go ahead and do it. You control your environment. You control your arena.
“I think each school in this situation, don’t wait for the NCAA to tell you what to do. You figure it out yourself. Come up with our own plan. I bet your plan will be better than theirs.
“I just think the planning has to change. Sometimes I look at some of these court stormings, and (the schools) had no idea their fans were even going to do it.”
On Saturday, March 9, UH hosts Big 12 power Kansas, presently ranked seventh, in the last game of the regular season. It could be the close-out win for the Cougars’ first Big 12 championship in the school’s first season in the league.
Fans are already talking about running onto the court to celebrate.
The Big 12 fined Central Florida $25,000 in January after its fans rushed the court following a win over Kansas. The conference also penalized Texas the same amount for a postgame celebration of a win over the Jayhawks last season.
“Well, we better have a plan,” Sampson said, “but our plan better be to beat Kansas. I ain’t worried about the court storming. I might pay the fine myself.”
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