Okay, so, just between you and me, I hate Duke. I really hate Duke. This is my statement to the world that Duke is no good and I am not a fan. They’re low down. They’re dirty. They’re like Auburn if Auburn was full of white prep boys who play ball.
However, as much as I am a Duke hater, they don’t deserve to get beat up by a bunch of random fans after a game. And they definitely don’t deserve to have actual honest-to-god players get injured over a court storming when playing at Wake Forest.
In the grand scheme of sports news, this one sort of slipped under the radar in my feed, mainly because Tobacco Road rivalries aren’t really talked about too much up north, or in the south. Up here, I don’t think people know that there are four colleges in North Carolina, and down south, well, we have real rivalries. Y’know, the type that deserves to be talked about, like Auburn-Alabama, Georgia-Florida, and Georgia Tech-Speaking to Women.
But I’ll give those schools something. Tobacco Road rivalries are a lot of fun to watch, especially when it comes to basketball. Usually North Carolina vs Duke is always center stage since they’re the premier national-championship winning schools in the state, and two of the best programs in college basketball history. But the lesser known North Carolina State and Wake Forest are also annoying every now and then.
And sometimes, they’re a lot more than just annoying. Like when, after upsetting a top 10 Duke team by four points, Wake Forest fans rushed the court. Now, court-rushing is an important part of the sport, and it’s important to make sure that when you beat your opponents in a game you are sure to rub it in their faces as much as possible. The most important part of sports is taking full advantage of any opportunity to mock your opponents. So, after putting away Duke by going up four with less than a tenth of a second left, Wake Forest fans got up, made a calm beeline to the stairs, and performed a slow and orderly rushing of the field. Nobody made any sudden movements, which was important to the sanctity of the sport.
Okay, so now that the NCAA is off my back, those guys ran onto the field and showed Duke what’s up, and I love it. I want Wake to be the premier private school in the state.
There was a slight problem, though, in that a few of the players got caught up in the running and couldn’t get out of the way in time. This led to Kyle Filipowski getting his leg all jumbled up after a couple of fans ran into him, which led to him losing his balance and getting injured.
Now, injuries do happen during court-stormings, and what happened to Filipowski isn’t great. Hopefully he’ll make a full recovery, and based on what I’ve seen, he’s probably going to be fine. It could have been a lot worse though, and that’s probably important to take into account going forwards. Most courts do actually do a lot of work to make sure players and important staff aren’t in the way of a bunch of excessively drunk rowdy college students, and usually that, with some security, is good enough to keep people safe. Apparently Wake Forest doesn’t know how to do that.
Good job Wake. You’re bad at winning in basketball.
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