Duke college basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski made some comments about students rushing the court last night after a loss at Virginia. He said that he was worried for his players’ safety after last night’s game. Here is what Coach K actually said last night:
“Look, do you know how close you are to — just put yourself in the position of one of our players or coaches. I’m not saying any fan did this, but the potential is there all the time for a fan to just go up to you and say, ‘Coach, you’re a [expletive],’ or push you or hit you. And what do you do? What if you did something? That would be the story. We deserve that type of protection.
“I’m always concerned about stuff like that, especially at this time of the year. What if that happened and we get a kid suspended? That becomes the national story. It’s not all fun and games when people are rushing the court, especially for the team that lost. Again, congratulations to them, and they should have fun and burn benches and do all that stuff. I’m all for that. They have a great school, great kids, but get us off the court. That’s the bottom line.”
Look, I see what Coach K is trying to say. He has every right to be worried about the welfare and safety of his players. Hell, besides his players other people in the arena run the risk of getting trampled when immature, drunk-ass college students rush the court after a huge win over a conference rival.
That said, Coach K came off like a whiner.
He HAS to know that the team he is coaching is DUKE. He HAS to know that whenever his team loses on the road in a conference game – outside perhaps UNC – that college kids and fans of that school WILL storm the court to celebrate the win. And more importantly, he HAS to know that he is COACH K. He is considered a modern day John Wooden in terms of the behemoth he built at Duke. As a result, ANYTHING short of a national championship is a failure.
Therefore, beating Duke these days is a BIG F-ING DEAL, particularly for conference rivals on the road. Duke had to witness fans of four schools (NC State, Miami, Merry-land, and Virginia) storm the court on them. I’m guessing Coach K is pretty damn sick and tired of seeing that.
Again, I am not saying Coach K is wrong in what he said. Safety should be a concern. However, court-storming is a way of life in college basketball for fans everywhere.
Coach K should just man up and deal with that.
Categories: college basketball
Court – Storming is not a way of life. The SEC has severe penalties for storming the court and it’s practically non-existent there. When I was at Ohio State, our philosophy was that storming the court indicated that you didn’t expect to win and are pleasantly surprised. We always expect to win so we don’t storm the court.