Jay Bilas is ready to put an end to court-storming in college basketball. The ESPN analyst had some strong opinions and had no trouble sharing during College GameDay on Saturday.
Fans storming the court after a big win isn't anything new. It has become more frequent in recent years, though. For the most part, nobody has minded these celebrations.
After all, college kids may only get a few of these moments. Who wants to take away that fun?
But conversations about safety started heating up in early January. Purdue coach Matt Painter said he was fine with fans storming the court, but wanted schools to have safer measures in place. His comments came after the No. 1 Boilermakers lost to Nebraska in Lincoln — resulting in fans flooding the floor.
A few weeks later, an Ohio State fan collided with Iowa star Caitlin Clark while running onto the court after the Buckeyes upset the Hawkeyes in a thrilling overtime game.
Now, Bilas is sharing his thoughts on the matter.
“The passion of it is great. I love the passion. Fans do not belong on the court, ever. And players don’t belong in the stands,” said Bilas. “Remember years ago, Marcus Smart went in the stands and everybody had a conniption fit over it. Players don’t belong in the stands, fans don’t belong on the court.
Bilas pointed to court-storming as a player safety issue. He also said that professional sports does a better job at protecting its players than schools at the college level.
“We love it, we put it on TV at the end of every highlight, we promote it, all media companies do. When someone gets hurt, we’re going to get serious about it,” said Bilas. “But until then… (pro sports) protect the players, but we don’t do it in college.”
We'll see if those around college basketball do something to keep players safer during court storms moving forward.
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