Jon Scheyer on North Carolina's court storm: 'I got staff members that got punched in the face'
Duke head coach Jon Scheyer was not happy in the postgame press conference when discussing North Carolina’s court storm.
The Tar Heel faithful preemptively stormed the court after Seth Trimble knocked down the game-winning triple. However, there was still 0.4 seconds left on the clock and North Carolina fans had to return to the stands so Duke could inbound.
After Duke’s final heave missed, North Carolina fans stormed the court once again to celebrate the 71–68 win.
“For me, it’s hard to talk about the game when I was most concerned with just the safety of our players after the game,” Scheyer said. “I don’t want to make it about that because Carolina, they played a great game to win and that’s a heartbreaking loss for our team.”
“But I got staff members that got punched in the face. My family, pushing people away, trying to not get trampled. That’s not what this game is about. You give them all the credit in the world, not about the game, but obviously that was a scary ending and this rivalry is not about that.”
Scheyer voiced more frustrations moments later.
“It put our players in position where they’re face to face with people who can do anything at that time,” Scheyer said. “And it just takes one reaction. I thought even today, I had to push people away just to protect our players. So court storming I’m all for. Trust me. They won, they should celebrate. If they want to court storm, court storm. But just lets get our guys off safely. That’s it. So that’s where I’m at with that.”
North Carolina Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham addressed the media after Scheyer’s presser and apologized.
As for the result, it was a huge win for North Carolina (19-4, 7-3 ACC) to keep pace for a top four seed in the ACC Tournament, and Duke (21-2, 10-1) has now dropped its first game in ACC play. These two teams will meet again in Durham to end the regular season on March 7.
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