By Daniel Johnson, Staff Writer

Published in print Mar. 4, 2015

With every collegiate basketball season, you can expect four recurring elements to happen:  Freshmen throughout the nation will be more hyped and built up than Flavor Flav from Public Enemy in their first season, an older and louder Dick Vitale, losing your NCAA Bracket by the second week of the tournament, and a storming of the court midway in the season which will draw complaints from fans and analysts over the country.

With early NBA draft charts predicting at least half the top ten picks being freshmen, and Dicky V pulling off a real life Benjamin Button year after year as he still works nationally televised games, we have two out of the four happening within the past two week.

With the tournament still a few weeks away, my forecast will not be complete at this moment, but I achieved three out of four due to the court-storming controversy which occurred last week.

After Kansas State upset rival and the number eight seed Kansas at their home arena, there was mayhem in Manhattan, with Kansas State fans storming the court to celebrate their team’s victory.

What made this court storming so controversial is the fact that players and coaches on the Kansas bench got caught up in the madness, and had difficulty getting to their locker room.

Though this had happened before, and no one was hurt, many analysts and fans have come out to state that the act of storming the court should be banned.

Looking back at the ending between the two teams, there was something that did not stick right in my stomach, and it was not only the microwave White Castles I had just eaten.

Being suspicious, I looked back and reviewed past court stormings in college and high school basketball, as well as field stormings in collegiate and high school football. In the videos I saw, I found nothing wrong with the fans storming the fields/courts.

They celebrated with the players, the opposing team got out safely, and everyone had fun.

Then I looked back at the Kansas-Kansas State game. Re-watching the video, the storming of the court was out of control and potential injuries could have been inflicted on Kansas’ players or coaches.

For this reason, I understand why people would want to ban the fans from storming the court in that respect.

However, a question I feel that people should have asked is “Where was the Kansas State security?”

When the fans ran on the court at Bramlage Coliseum last week, I did not see a single security guard until the court was completely submerged.

In every other video I saw, there were some police and security force that prevented the courts to be stormed the absolute second the final buzzer went off. Either it be security guards themselves, administration, or some other form of authority, the opposing players usually got a head start to get into the locker room before the rampage begun.

With the game being virtually out of hand for the Kansas Jayhawks, Kansas State security had plenty of time to quell the crowd while the Jayhawks shook hands and went to the locker room.

The real issue in my opinion is the lack of any form of control on the part of the Kansas State administration if the court was to be stormed.

Did they not think their team had any shot and not hire anyone to watch the fans; not thinking it would be needed? Do you know how to prevent this from happening? Have the NCAA tell the home school if they do not provide proper security to games in case of court storming against a visiting school, fines will be handed out to the home school for lack of protection.

So no, storming the court should not end.

Now, as long a Kentucky can keeping their winning streak alive, I should have a guaranteed national champion in my tournament bracket. I might even have a chance to win my tourney pool this year.

Categories: daniel johnson, Sports