So while I watching the latest upset of Duke the other night, as the seconds and minutes ticked down, and Duke hadn’t made a barrage of three pointers and Mason Plumlee dunks to cut the gap and overtake the lead, all I could think of was if UVA was going to storm the court when they won. Considering the fact that NC State, Miami and Maryland had all stormed court after beating Duke, and that UVA hadn’t beaten Duke in like forever, so the answer was pretty obvious. Naturally when the final horn sounded, UVA stormed the court as everyone and their mother relished at the sight of Coach K and Duke walking off the court in failure and disappointment.
Seldom is there a Duke loss on the road that doesn’t involve the home fans storming the court. According to the WSJ, an astounding 80% of the home team fans have stormed the court following an upset over Duke over the span of the last ten years. In fact, the article is a little dated and doesn’t factor in the wins of Miami, Maryland and Virginia into the equation so it’s now a little bit more. Obviously, my favorite one is the one shown above, but it really doesn’t matter who it is in the end; everyone on the planet that did not go to Duke loves to see Duke’s men’s basketball team lose on the road and seeing their opponents’ fans storming the court in celebration. I’m pretty sure people would be okay if Duke lost to the Soviets in 1972 and Soviet fans stormed the court, to be perfectly honest.
A big deal is being made over court storming this year, and the obvious joke is that it’s because Duke keeps losing to opponents on the road, which keeps giving opposing schools’ students excuses to storm the court. But I can understand where the controversy is coming from, because with such frequent court stormings, it’s only a matter of time when a celebration goes too far, and something scandalous or very detrimental is going to happen. It hasn’t yet, but given the fucktard tendencies of people who get caught up in fads and trends, it’s really only a matter of time.
But I think part of the problems is that it’s simply being addressed. Coach K’s acknowledgment of court stormings is kind of akin to feeding the trolls. Now that he’s confirmed to the world that it does irk him when Duke-beating opponents’ students storm the courts, it’s only going to make everyone want to storm the court against them in the future.
Imagine if like a school like Ball State or Davidson, or like a school with next to zero history of basketball success like Boston College, that Coach K likes to pads Duke’s early-season schedule with. Imagine if one of them managed to pull the monumental upset over Duke. They’re so not used to winning at all, that they wouldn’t even realize that they were supposed to storm the court. Until now, that is. Now that it’s become known that it is pretty much mandatory that if Duke loses on your home floor, you must storm it immediately afterward, it will undoubtedly happen. It is unavoidable, and it has happened to everyone, and will happen to everyone, that one embarrassing loss.
As for the rest of Duke’s usual opponents, most of them are just going to continue to do it, out of sheer defiancy. There’s now even an argument for the teams that are often on Duke’s general skill level with regularity, that they should storm the court when they really want to send the message. Ohio State and Carolina have typically refrained from storming the court on Duke, but if things get really heated, there’s no reason why their students wouldn’t storm the court, because they knew it drove Coach K and Duke fans bonkers.
On the flip side however, Duke is looking at court storming through the wrong eyes. They don’t seem to realize that everyone wants to storm the court on them, because beating Duke is really that big of a deal. As much as everyone hates to admit it, Duke is a really, really, really, really good basketball program. Sure, there are the usual jokes that the refs are paid off, that Coach K pulls strings behind the scenes, etc, etc, but when Seth Curry is draining 26-foot three-pointers, and Ryan Kelly is doing all the correct fundamental things, Duke wins, because they always, always have talented players. Whereas they might currently see storming the court as a sign of disrespect, they really should be understanding that if they weren’t such a great basketball program, that nobody would storm the court in the first place.
Ohio State was the last team to send that reverse message, that Duke was no big deal, when they didn’t storm the court back last year. Naturally the double-standard comes into effect, and there were at least two Duke student publications claiming Ohio State was being disrespectful by not storming the court after winning. But that just kind of verifies the importance of storming the court should be to Duke.
And Duke should really enjoy it while it lasts. No runs of success last forever, and as much as Dookies hate to admit it, Coach K isn’t going to be around forever. Ultimately, when he leaves, much of Duke’s success is going to leave with him. And when the success drops out, and then Duke goes back to being a middle-of-the-pack ACC school, the importance of beating Duke is going to disappear. When the fans stop storming the court after beating Duke, then Duke is no longer an elite program.
Imagine a future where middling schools like Virginia Tech and Wake Forest will get wins on Duke, but the students don’t storm the court? Instead, the fans clap a few times, yawn, get up, stretch, grab their jacket off of the seat that was unsold next to them, and then leave without giving the game a second thought.
Would Duke enthusiasts really prefer to have that instead of rabid scenes, national television, and ESPN headlines?
