Duke star Kyle Filipowski injured his knee on Saturday after Wake Forest fans rushed to the center of the floor following the Demon Deacons’ 83-79 win over the Blue Devils in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Fans stormed the court before the clock expired in an apparent security failure that saw Filipowski tangled up in the middle of a stampede around midcourt. Teammates came to his aid and had to help him to the locker room as he hobbled on one leg.
“I felt a bunch of hits on my body,” Filipowski told Greensboro, North Carolina, CBS affiliate WFMY. “This one was the worst of them. Like I said, it’s just really ridiculous how, you know, that situation’s handled. I’ve already heard that there (are) some videos of (me) getting punched in the back, so I absolutely feel like it was personal, intentional for sure. There’s no reason why they see a big guy like me trying to work my way off the court and can’t work their way around me. There’s no excuse for that.”
Filipowski was grimacing in pain after the incident and had one arm around a Duke staffer as he made his way through the tunnel back to the locker room. Teammates and coaches noticed he had been clipped during the court storming and did their best to try and brush off eager and apparently unaware Wake fans.
“When are we going to ban court-storming?” Duke coach Jon Scheyer asked after the game. “It’s a dangerous thing.”
Scheyer added that right now he is unsure of Filipowski’s status moving forward.
“On behalf of Wake Forest, we sincerely regret the unfortunate on-court incident following this afternoon’s men’s basketball game and hope the involved Duke student-athlete is doing better,” Wake Forest athletic director John Currie wrote in a statement released by the school. “I called Duke Vice President and Director of Athletics Nina King and ACC Senior Associate Commissioner Paul Brazeau immediately after the game and expressed our sincere regret for the situation and our concern for the Duke student-athlete’s well-being. Although our event management staff and security had rehearsed postgame procedures to protect the visiting team and officials, we clearly must do better. I appreciate the postgame comments of Duke Head Coach Jon Scheyer and I am in complete agreement that something more must be done about the national phenomenon of court and field storming and Wake Forest looks forward to being a part of those conversations.”
“When I played, at least it was 10 seconds before people stormed the court,” Scheyer said. “Now, the buzzer doesn’t even go off and they’re running down the floor.”
Filipowski scored a team-high 17 points in the losing effort and leads the team this season in points and rebounds per game. The former five-star recruit is in his second season with the program and a projected top-20 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.
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