Duke star: Court-storming Wake Forest fans tried to injure me

Kyle Filipowski. Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports

Duke star believes court-storming Wake Forest fans tried to injure him

By Mike Santa Barbara | Last updated 2/24/24

On Saturday, Wake Forest fans stormed the court following an 83-79 upset victory over No. 8 Duke, injuring Blue Devils' center Kyle Filipowski. However, the sophomore believes that the knee injury he suffered during the chaos was no accident.

An understandably upset Filipowski called the incident and how Wake Forest handled it "ridiculous" before ripping into the school's fans for deliberately trying to hurt him.

"I absolutely feel like it was personal. Intentional for sure," Filipowski told WFMY. "There's no reason they see a big guy like me trying to work my way off the court, and they can't just work around me. There's no excuse for that."

An overhead view from ESPN proves that Filipowski and his teammates had little time to avoid the sea of fans filling the court. The video shows a Wake Forest fan taunting the Duke star as the two make contact, which may have caused his injury.

ESPN just showed a new angle of the court-storming at Wake Forest where Duke's Kyle Filipowski was injured. Can clearly see where he hurts his knee as a fan taunts him while racing to midcourt. Unbelievable. pic.twitter.com/ABAsKC2kTI
— Kyle Boone (@kyletheboone) February 24, 2024

Filipowski isn't the first star to be on the wrong end of an incident like Saturday's. Recently, Iowa's Caitlin Clark narrowly avoided injury following an on-court collision with an Ohio State fan.

If the response at Wake Forest proves anything, little has changed regarding precautions following Clark's run-in. However, Filipowski's injury has reignited the conversation about whether court-storming should be prohibited. Following the postgame scrum, Duke head coach Jon Scheyer called for an end to the practice.

With the incident still fresh in the minds of basketball fans and the NCAA, perhaps this will be the final straw, and regulations can be put into place to avoid the avoidable in the future. Traditions are hard to break, and maybe there's a way to have fans safely storm courts in the future, but until something changes, more athletes like Clark and Filipowski are at risk for the same or worse fates.

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