Let the Fans Storm the Court After Big Wins

Lately, it seems anytime a basketball team wins a game against a good opponent, the fans storm the court. This has drawn negative reactions from a lot of fans, who think storming the court should be saved for only the biggest games or not done at all.

There is a common belief that students at schools like North Carolina and Duke should never storm the court because they should expect to win games.

This is all more ridiculous than telling a football fan to “stay classy” because he booed your team.

The last time I checked, sports were about winning and having fun. If your team wins, you should get to have a little fun, and storming the court looks like a lot of fun.

Heading into its matchup with Kentucky Saturday, South Carolina had three wins in Southeastern Conference play. When the Gamecocks defeated the Wildcats, the fans stormed the court.

That one win really isn’t going to make South Carolina’s terrible season better. But beating Kentucky in basketball is always fun, and after the season they have endured, the Gamecock faithful deserved a little fun. I applaud them for celebrating by storming the court.

Of course I realize there can be a dangerous side to fans rushing onto the court when players from both teams are still on it.

This was evident this year when a fight involving both players and fans occurred when Utah Valley State fans stormed the court after their team upset New Mexico State.

I’d like to say I have some brilliant plan for keeping that from happening, but I don’t. Emotions run high on both sides, in frustration or even anger for the losing team and excitement for the winning team and its fans.

But isn’t the emotion and the passion two of the things we’re supposed to love about sports? Banning court stormings because of one fight really isn’t the way to go, if you ask me.

Plus, how would you try to enforce that? You can say something isn’t allowed, but what are the chances that it will actually keep a bunch of overexcited college students from doing it?

The SEC fines schools when fans storm the court, but that sure didn’t stop the South Carolina fans Saturday.

Maybe we should forget about being “classy,” forget that there are certain teams that should always beat and forget that the team that just won still only has four wins this season. Maybe we could just get really excited when our teams beat really good teams.