Jay Bilas has an idea that he believes would put a stop to fans storming the court after college basketball games, and it would be an understatement to say the suggestion has not received much support.
Bilas spoke about court storming on Monday and was critical of NCAA officials for not doing more to discourage it. The longtime analyst suggested that police should issue citations and detain fans who storm the court.
“If they wanted to stop it, they could stop it tomorrow. The administrators would tell you that security experts tell them that it’s not a good idea to try to stop the court storming — that it would cause more problems than it would solve. But you don’t have to stop the court storming,” Bilas said. “One time, all you have to do is once they’re on the court, don’t let them off. Just say you’re all detained and give them all citations or arrest them if you want to. Then, court storming will stop the next day.”
https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1762141152130572475
Thousands of fans storm the court in some instances. Is Bilas suggesting police and security staffers would be capable of detaining every fan in a situation like that? Even Bilas’ ESPN colleague Richard Jefferson called the idea “asinine” and “the dumbest thing I have ever heard.”
https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1762220121244803380
Bilas was also torn apart on social media.
@JayBilas they could stop underage drinking in college by giving out citations right?
This is a terrible take.
— Ben Cary (@Ben_Cary_) February 26, 2024
https://twitter.com/GottliebShow/status/1762284921048171007
There's 10,000% a better way to do this than mass arresting people, hah.
Jay starting to lose it.
— Made For March (@madeformarch) February 26, 2024
https://twitter.com/MattGrossenbach/status/1762210377859789268
The court storming discussion has been brought back into focus after Duke star Kyle Filipowski suffered an ankle injury as some fans collided with him while rushing the court following the Blue Devils’ 83-79 loss to Wake Forest on Saturday. You can see the video here.
Duke head coach Jon Scheyer wants to see the NCAA find a way to ban court storming. Bilas, of course, is a former Duke star. Some feel he would not be as passionate about the issue if not for the latest incident involving his alma mater.
