Duke coach Jon Scheyer addresses player safety concerns after Clemson fans stormed court

Clemson fans got to storm the court after the upset of No. 2 Duke.

Brandon Rink - Assoc. Editor / Staff Writer - Monday, February 10 2025

Fans storming the court is a part of college basketball, and given the weight of Clemson's upset over No. 2 Duke Saturday, everyone knew that was coming as Clemson inched toward victory late.

Video shows Duke staffers, Blue Devils head coach Jon Scheyer confirming his part Monday, coming into contact with fans charging the court and acting as a barrier for the players looking to head to the locker room.

Scheyer didn't address it in his postgame news conference Saturday, and he says he didn't for a reason.

“It was a tough situation. I didn't want to say anything about it because I didn't want anything to take away from the job Clemson did. Clemson, they played a big-time game, and had a big-time win, and that should have been the story,” Scheyer said on the ACC coaches' Zoom news conference Monday. “But, look, it’s crossing my mind at the end of the game about trying to make sure our players are safe. And that shouldn’t be my responsibility in that moment. Security should have that taken care of.

"The fact that I'm debating (taking starters off the court), look, we can win the game still. Down six with five seconds to go, as a coach, you want to be thinking about how to win the game, and we were. Cooper (Flagg) hits that three and you're still a three from winning. That's my mindset. The officials, they tried to stop the rush for just a second, just so we could get our players off the court. So I think they should rush and court storming and all that. Just, we’ve got to get our players off the court safely. And that wasn’t a safe environment, no question about it."

Duke famously ran into an issue last season when star player Kyle Filipowski collided with a court-storming Wake Forest fan and appeared to be injured from it. At the time, Scheyer asked openly if storming the court should be banned.

"I was put in a position where I was shielding our guys from people running up and getting in their face," Scheyer said of Saturday. "I don't think we want something to happen and then have to make a decision to do something. Again, I don't want anything--that's not for Brad (Brownell) to worry about. That's not for his staff. Their team, they did an incredible job. But yeah, obviously I'm concerned about my players' safety in that situation. No question."

Duke coach Jon Scheyer was asked today if he thought the ACC should adopt an SEC-like court storming fine system for player safety. Here’s his full response, saying it’s nothing against Clemson MBB/Brad Brownell but Saturday night “wasn’t a safe environment, no question about it” pic.twitter.com/EM1S8k77jw
— Chapel Fowler (@chapelfowler) February 10, 2025