{"id":35349,"date":"2013-03-02T00:39:11","date_gmt":"2013-03-02T04:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=35349"},"modified":"2020-07-05T00:39:29","modified_gmt":"2020-07-05T04:39:29","slug":"the-importance-of-storming-the-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=35349","title":{"rendered":"The importance of storming the court"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SgGNuer1WMs?controls=0&amp;start=268\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">So while I watching the latest upset of Duke the other night, as the seconds and minutes ticked down, and Duke <em>hadn\u2019t<\/em> 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\u2019t 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">Seldom is there a Duke loss on the road that doesn\u2019t involve the home fans storming the court. <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424127887323596204578241900883447458.html\">According to the WSJ, an astounding 80% of the home team fans<\/a> 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\u2019t factor in the wins of Miami, Maryland and Virginia into the equation so it\u2019s now a little bit more. Obviously, my favorite one is the one shown above, but it really doesn\u2019t matter who it is in the end; everyone on the planet that did not go to Duke loves to see Duke\u2019s men\u2019s basketball team lose on the road and seeing their opponents\u2019 fans storming the court in celebration. I\u2019m pretty sure people would be okay if Duke lost to the Soviets in 1972 and Soviet fans stormed the court, to be perfectly honest.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\"><!--more--><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">A big deal is being made over court storming this year, and the obvious joke is that it\u2019s because Duke keeps losing to opponents on the road, which keeps giving opposing schools\u2019 students excuses to storm the court. But I can understand where the controversy is coming from, because with such frequent court stormings, it\u2019s only a matter of time when a celebration goes too far, and something scandalous or very detrimental is going to happen. It hasn\u2019t yet, but given the fucktard tendencies of people who get caught up in fads and trends, it\u2019s really only a matter of time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">But I think part of the problems is that it\u2019s simply being addressed. Coach K\u2019s acknowledgment of court stormings is kind of akin to feeding the trolls. Now that he\u2019s confirmed to the world that it does irk him when Duke-beating opponents\u2019 students storm the courts, it\u2019s only going to make everyone want to storm the court against them in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">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\u2019s early-season schedule with. Imagine if one of them managed to pull the monumental upset over Duke. They\u2019re so not used to winning at all, that they wouldn\u2019t even realize that they were supposed to storm the court. Until now, that is. Now that it\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">As for the rest of Duke\u2019s usual opponents, most of them are just going to continue to do it, out of sheer defiancy. There\u2019s now even an argument for the teams that are often on Duke\u2019s 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\u2019s no reason why their students wouldn\u2019t storm the court, because they knew it drove Coach K and Duke fans bonkers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">On the flip side however, Duke is looking at court storming through the wrong eyes. They don\u2019t 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\u2019t such a great basketball program, that nobody would storm the court in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">Ohio State was the last team to send that reverse message, that Duke was no big deal, when they didn\u2019t 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">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\u2019t going to be around forever. Ultimately, when he leaves, much of Duke\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">Imagine a future where middling schools like Virginia Tech and Wake Forest will get wins on Duke, but the students <em>don\u2019t<\/em> 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">Would Duke enthusiasts <em>really <\/em>prefer to have that instead of rabid scenes, national television, and ESPN headlines?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So while I watching the latest upset of Duke the other night, as the seconds and minutes ticked down, and Duke hadn\u2019t 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 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=35349\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The importance of storming the court<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[59,155,15,52,91,58],"class_list":["post-35349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-basketball","tag-hokies","tag-og","tag-owned","tag-pf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35349"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35350,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35349\/revisions\/35350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}