Duke’s Filipowski injured when fans storm court at Wake Forest. Coaches, player react

Duke basketball coach Jon Scheyer angrily called for the ACC to ban court storming after one of his top players suffered a knee injury when Wake Forest students ran into him following Saturday’s game.

Video from the court storm showed several Wake Forest students made contact with Kyle Filipowski, Duke’s leading scorer, as they ran on to the court following the Demon Deacons’ 83-79 win over the No. 8 Blue Devils at Joel Coliseum.

Talking with a ice pack wrapped around his right knee, Filipowski said the contact was clearly intentional.

“There’s some videos of me getting punched in the back,” Filipowski said. “I absolutely feel like it was personal. Intentional, for sure. There’s no reason where they see a big guy like me trying to work my way off the court that they can’t just work around you. There’s no excuse for that.”

Scheyer’s team has seen home fans storm the court following earlier losses at Arkansas and Georgia Tech this season. It’s a common occurrence when the Blue Devils lose away from Cameron Indoor Stadium.

But Scheyer wants more to be done to protect the visiting coaches and players.

“When are we going to ban court-storming?” Scheyer said. “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.”

Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes concurred with Scheyer.

“I don’t like court stormings,’ Wake Forest coach Steve Forbes said. “I never have. I’ve been part of them before. Next time we’re going to have to do a better job of taking care of that situation.”

This is developing story and will be updated