In the blink of an eye, chaos erupted. The final buzzer had not even sounded, and the Clemson faithful swarmed the court, sending Duke’s players scrambling for safety. It was a disturbing moment that has left the college basketball world reeling and for good reason. For Duke head coach Jon Scheyer, the incident was all too familiar, forcing him to repeat a concern he voiced last season – one that, frustratingly, remains unaddressed.

The evening began with a thrilling matchup between Clemson and Duke, with the Tigers pulling off a stunning 77-71 upset over the second-ranked Blue Devils. Experience prevailed at the Littlejohn Coliseum as Clemson’s battle-tested veterans outperformed Duke’s promising freshman trio. And just like that, Clemson crushed Duke’s hopes for an undefeated run through the ACC on Saturday night.

However, there was a fleeting moment when Coach Scheyer believed a comeback was still within reach. Except that immediately after, he had to shift his focus from the scoreboard to the safety of his players. As the Clemson fans rushed the court, Scheyer sprang into action. The footage revealed a chaotic scene, with Duke staff members and Scheyer, intervening to shield players from the surging crowd, creating a human barrier to safeguard their path to the locker room.

While any serious harm was prevented timely, the incident has reignited concerns about player safety during court-storming events. Scheyer expressed his frustration on the ACC coaches’ Zoom news conference on Monday, stating, “It was a tough situation. I didn’t want to say anything about it because I didn’t want anything to take away from the job Clemson did……..But, look, it’s crossing my mind at the end of the game about trying to make sure our players are safe. And that shouldn’t be my responsibility in that moment. Security should have that taken care of. “

Scheyer pointed out that before the chaos erupted, his team was still within three points of winning. “The fact that I’m debating (taking starters off the court), look, we can win the game still. Down six with five seconds to go, as a coach, you want to be thinking about how to win the game, and we were. Cooper (Flagg) hits that three and you’re still a three from winning. That’s my mindset”. 

Scheyer praised the officials for briefly stopping the court rush, giving his players a chance to exit safely. Nevertheless, he remained adamant on the fact that it “wasn’t a safe environment.” Scheyer’s frustration is understandable, given that this is not the first time Duke has faced a court-storming incident.

How many times must Jon Scheyer sound the alarm

Last season, Duke star player Kyle Filipowski collided with a Wake Forest fan and suffered a knee injury. At the time, Jon Scheyers had boldly questioned whether court-storming should be absolutely prohibited. “When are we going to ban court storming?” Scheyer asked the media. “When are we going to ban that? 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”. 

Scheyer had also brought to everyone’s mind the visuals of a college basketball superstar, Caitlin Clark, being knocked to the floor by an inattentive fan glued to their phone storming the court. Hence, several incidents have starkly illustrated the grave risks athletes face when crowd control breaks down. Yet, it seems like concerns keep falling on deaf ears, as there has been no major progress.

While four of the six conferences impose fines on host schools for failing to keep fans off the court for a first offense, the ACC has different policies in place. The ACC does not currently levy fines, but instead relies on individual schools to manage their events and ensure the safety of officials, visiting teams, and players.

The SEC, on the other hand, has a strict fine structure in place, with penalties ranging from $100,000 for a first offense to $500,000 for subsequent incidents. This policy has already had an impact, with Vanderbilt implementing a new post-game court-storming policy after being fined $750,000 for two separate incidents. The new policy features a one-minute countdown clock displayed on the video board, allowing the court to be cleared before fans are permitted to enter.

Scheyer hopes that ACC will adopt a similar approach, freeing coaches to concentrate on the game’s outcome, rather than their players’ well-being.