Jay Bilas’s suggested mode of banning courtstorming in college basketball wasn’t popular with everyone, especially with his ESPN colleague Richard Jefferson.
Duke star Kyle Filipowski was injured Saturday afternoon when Wake Forest students stormed the court to celebrate their unexpected victory over the Blue Devils. Reacting to the incident Monday morning on First Take, Bilas, a former Duke player, said harsh penalties would end court storming.
“You don’t have to stop the courtstorming,” 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. And then court stormings will stop the next day.”
Naturally, the idea of arresting every person who rushes the court in college basketball was not received well by many fans. Richard Jefferson led the charge against Bilas Monday afternoon on ESPN’s NBA Today.
Richard Jefferson doesn’t seem to agree with Jay Bilas. pic.twitter.com/knNIpZeqpV
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 26, 2024
“That’s gotta be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” Jefferson ranted about Bilas. “Did he say detain 10,000 people? Did he say give 10,000 people citations?”
One thing Jefferson agreed with Bilas on, however, was that he never liked being on the court when fans and students were storming it. Jefferson said he had the court stormed on him four or five times during his college playing career at Arizona, and “it sucks.”
“I love Jay Bilas, a legend in this game,” Jefferson continued as he attempted to lessen the blow before bringing the hammer down on his colleague. “That is asinine to suggest that…this is a part of college sports. It always happens.”
“We’re talking about one situation, two situations over the course of how many court stormings?” Jefferson said of players getting hurt during the tradition. “We get it. But let’s not get old and get the ‘Get off my lawn, get a citation, let’s arrest them all.’ Do we know what we’re talking about when we say these things?”
This wasn’t the first time Bilas called for courtstorming to be banned, and there are certainly reasonable arguments to be made that the college sports tradition should be stopped. But doing so by arresting thousands of students on the spot for something that has become customary in college sports is not reasonable.
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com