As the saying goes, “Act like you’ve been there before.” Yes, I’m back after a long baby-related hiatus. All it took was 2 ridiculous court rushes to motivate Ms. Mitten to write again. I’ve made no secret of how I feel when it comes to storming the court, as I wrote this 2 years ago: https://msmittensmound.com/2013/03/14/storming-the-court-manifesto-fools-rush-in/. I’ve said it before and will keep on preaching, stop the epidemic!

On Monday night, Kansas State beat rival Kansas for the 2^nd year in the row – and stormed the court for that win both times. So much for having been there before! I know Kansas is the elite of the Big 12, but was only ranked 8^th and their students/fans should come to expect to put up a fight and even beat their rival on their home court based on recent history. In case the storming wasn’t enough, students felt the need to make physical contact with KU players and Coach Bill Self was found pinned against the scorers’ table with KSU coach Bruce Weber trying to help him instead of enjoying a nice win for his program. Not the ending that Coach Weber imagined after the W! Now, police are searching for a student who was caught on tape hitting a player. The shame for KSU is that the players gave their all in that game and all the media coverage the next day was about the students and court storm – not the team and their triumph!

Then on Tuesday night, 14^th ranked Maryland was on the verge of upsetting 5^th ranked Wisconsin. Sadly, I found myself cheering for the Badgers because I didn’t want to see the court storm. Then, I thought they surely wouldn’t rush based on program pride and the media craze about this issue the night before. Man, was I wrong as the epidemic continues! The University of Maryland has won a National Championship and is ranked in the top 15, there is no reason they should have stormed the court last night! They have been there before and been #1 several times in the past but definitely didn’t act like it when the clock hit zero. As it happened, one announcer said to let the students have their moment. Last time I checked, enjoying the moments after a win are meant to be for the players while the fans bask in victory from their seats!

Court storming is dangerous for both fans and players and I fear nothing will be done about them until something really bad happens during one. Personally, I would love to see the NCAA ban court storms. There are so few times when I think it’s actually “acceptable” that a ban seems liked the easiest solution. The responsibility also falls on the individual schools and conferences to monitor the arenas and student sections. Until then, court storms will rank up there with 1-and-dones as things I hope will no longer be part of the college basketball scene in the future. Until then, it’s time for the students to stop trying to make the wins about them, have program pride that you expect big wins, and act like you’ve been there before when your school upsets another! #StopTheEpidemic