Miller on point about court storming
Issue needs fixing before it gets worse
Arizona men’s basketball coach Sean Miller is no fan of court storming, and he thinks his complaints have fallen on deaf ears.
Well, no longer. Not after his latest remarks, coming after Colorado’s 75-72 win Wednesday against the Wildcats, a game that ended with fans storming the court. Miller devoted more than half of his postgame news conference to the issue and delivered a thoughtful, forceful message — one that raises all the right points.
Here’s what Miller said, via the Tucson Arizona Daily Star:
“Let me say one last thing here. The one thing that I’ll say about our situation is simple, this: I have no problem being a great sport and I have no problem recognizing that Colorado deserved to win tonight. They won the game. They’re the better team. But eventually what’s going to happen in the Pac-12 is this: An Arizona player is going to punch a fan. And they’re going to punch the fan out of self-defense. And when it happens, only when it happens, will everybody say, ‘ We have to do something so that when the game ends we have a deep breath to be able to leave the court. Or at least shake the other team’s hand and then get to our locker room.’
“And then if the court wants to be stormed, fine. But until that happens, it’s fallen on deaf ears because there’s only one team right now that the court’s stormed on and for three consecutive years anytime we lose a game on the road it’s the same. Some are more under control, some aren’t. But if 7-foot, 250pound Kaleb Tarczewski gets bumped literally three seconds after the game ends and he retaliates, what would be the response of our conference? What would be the response? If more teams were having the court stormed on them, I wouldn’t be the only guy who’s bringing it up.
“There’s no sport — football, any sport in the country, professional, major league, whatever — where this happens to the level it happens. And what I mean is it’s literally within five seconds you have a mad rush on the court before our players can even leave the court. We lost to a good team. All credit should be pointed to Colorado.”
Arizona has lost 16 Pac-12 games in the last four years, and fans have stormed the court in 10 of those games. Miller has been outspoken against the trend for years. Logistics and security vary at each opposing arena, and at Colorado, students are close to the visiting team, making it potentially difficult for the visiting team to get back to its locker room without crossing the court.
Miller’s line about an Arizona player potentially punching a fan is the part that will get a great deal of media attention in the aftermath of this court storm. But he’s not wrong about that risk; college basketball has experienced quite a few of these dangerous, nearly out-of-control situations in recent years. Last February, Kansas’ Jamari Traylor was intentionally hipchecked by a Kansas State fan rushing the court, but Traylor didn’t retaliate.
“I wasn’t nervous for me,” Jayhawks coach Bill Self said afterward. “There were several students that hit our players. I’m not saying like with a fist, but when you storm the court, you run in, you bump everybody, stuff like that. This has got to stop.”
But it didn’t. And again, we ask the same question: Will it not stop until a player hits back? Is that what it will take — and do we really want to see that?
Two years ago, in a lower-profile yet equally jarring example, fans and players brawled at the end of a Utah Valley-New Mexico State game. Nothing changed then, either.
After commenting that this issue was falling on deaf ears, Miller was told that Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott was at the game Wednesday. “He doesn’t care,” Miller said. Fines are slight deterrents in conferences, and we’ve seen a trend of reverse-storms, where the players jump into the student sections to celebrate a big win.
But the traditional version of court storming after a big upset remains, and it’s still dangerous for all of the reasons Miller outlined.
“Somebody can say whatever they want to me — spit, do whatever you want — but I’m worried about the players who are under my direction,” Miller said. “If we lose, fine, let us get off the court, at least have some substance and control so that our guys aren’t in a situation where a lawsuit could come because when that comes, then and only then, will everybody pay attention.” Notice he said when, not if. “We can’t lose on the road anymore so they won’t storm the court. That’s the solution, right?” Miller said. “I’m watching this and telling you there’s going to be a situation that happens and they’ll be no turning back when it happens.”
That’s the scary thing, that it would take something like that to force change. Or maybe it’s scary because it’s not scary to others.