Wolverine247 Board

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Thomas Beindit said...

A lot has been made of rushing the court this year. It's become a favorite discussion topic for announcers and has recently become something to vent about for losing coaches in their press conferences. It's an exciting event, but there have been concerns raised about the safety of players, fans, and fans during these chaotic scenes. The court rushing topic probably reached its height when Coach K (Duke) complained about how fans rushed the court after his team was upset by Virginia. Given this, it seemed like now was as good of a time as any to take on the topic.

Before I give my perspective, let me preface by saying that I have never rushed a basketball court. I have rushed a football field (Ohio State in 2011), but not a basketball court. In fact, the last time Michigan fans even rushed the court was against UConn in 2010 and even at the time, people questioned whether rushing was a good decision. This was due to UConn's performance up to that point and whether they merited a rushing of the court. As the season unfolded, it become obvious that they did not deserve the rush. Either way, this is not an area where I have had personal experience.

Despite not having the experience, it's pretty obvious that rushing the court is a tremendous experience for fans and the team. Could you imagine a great college upset without rushing the court? It's something that's special and really takes a win to another level. There's no doubt that it's not an experience every fan wants, but if they don't want the experience, they can easily just remain in the stands. For visiting fans, it's a punishment for their team losing. And for opposing players and coaches, it's probably even worse.

But what about the threat of injuries to teams, staff, and fans? For the most part, these seem to be wildly overblown. There is no doubt that there's a chance for injuries, but that doesn't mean it's a legitimate chance for injuries. A man walking down the street could be hit by lightning, but that's not going to stop him from going to get his mail. Has a player been injured by a court rush? Yes, but not nearly the number made out by the media. In fact, even in the court rush against Duke earlier this week, no player was injured. And on top of this, there were articles out about how a fan in a wheelchair was able to rush the court when NC State beat Duke this year. If a fan in a wheelchair can make it on the court without problems, it doesn't seem logical for the staff to complain.

The final factor that is routinely discussed is the rise in frequency of court rushes this year. Court rushes are up. Even look at Michigan, who has been involved in a court rush already twice this year (Wisconsin, Penn State). They're occurring more often, but why? Is it because, as the media claims, that rushing isn't "special" anymore? There are always going to be a few court rushes like Michigan's rush of UConn in 2010, where it doesn't make that much sense, but most of them have been worthy. Illinois rushing after a defeat of #1 Indiana? Wisconsin beating #4 Michigan in overtime? Butler beating Gonzaga at the buzzer in their first home top 5 game in school history? How are these not worthy rushes?

It seems more logical to believe more court rushes are occurring because the top teams just aren't as good this season. If the top teams don't lose, there aren't going to be that many court rushes. Right now, they are losing, and losing pretty often. This week's AP top 5 have a combined 16 losses and will have 17 once the Miami - Duke game ends. The bigger part of this is that 11 of these losses came against teams that were unranked at the time. What's ironic is that typically the criteria for rushing the court is an unranked beating a top 5 team. The court rushes are happening more often, but it's has more to do with the types of losses than a permanent conceptual change.

The bottomline is that we don't need the NCAA to come in and attempt to minimize or shut down court rushing. Creating ways to make it safer is one thing. For instance, doing things like lining up staff to surround players or asking fans to wait until players leave the court is one thing, but attempting to ban rushing just doesn't make sense. It's something special that makes the college game great. The last thing we need is to make college basketball more like the NBA.

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MrWoodson said...

Bad things happen all the time in life. Planes crash but we still fly. Nerlens Noel blew out his knee bit we still play basketball. Tbe question is whether this is somehow an unreasonable level of risk or if we aren't taking all reasonable steps to prevent injuries. Students have been storming courts (and football fields) for decades and the number of serious injuries has been small. In fact, if you look at soccer, many of the worst injury situations have been caused by stadiums erecting barriers to prevent storming the field and fans being crushed against those barriers. They should absolutely implement protocols to make it as safe as possible, but beyond that it's not some ultra dangerous activity that must be stopped at all cause. It's just a bunch of excited and happy kids who want to celebrate. And they are doing it in a positive way (i.e. no burning couches, no rioting, no looting).

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MrWoodson said...

Well, we do a lot of things every day for enjoyment that are risky but aren't technically necessary, so I guess it depends on what your definition of necessary is. Life isn't risk free. Some people believe riding a motorcycle is worth the risk, other people don't. Something tells me the people storming the court believe it's well worth any risk to them.

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