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Duke’s Kyle Filipowski sore, avoided major injury after court storming incident in loss to Wake Forest

Kyle Filipowski’s status for Wednesday’s game against Louisville is still unknown

ryan young
Staff writer
·2 min read

Duke star Kyle Filipowski has avoided a major injury after he was hit by fans storming the court at Wake Forest on Saturday, head coach Jon Scheyer confirmed on Monday.

Though Filipowski is still “a little bit sore,” he didn’t need to undergo any testing for structural damage on his left knee after the incident. His status for the Blue Devils’ game against Louisville on Wednesday, however, is still unknown.

Immediately after Wake Forest knocked off Duke 83-79 on Saturday afternoon, Demon Deacon fans stormed onto the court at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum to celebrate. Filipowski was walking off the court when he was suddenly hit by fans, which appeared to significantly injure his knee. Several Duke teammates and staff members had to help him get off the court and into the locker room safely.

Video reviews showed Filipowski taking multiple hits during the incident, which he called “ridiculous.”

"There’s some videos of me getting punched in the back. I absolutely feel like it was personal, intentional for sure," he said after the game. "There's no reason they see a big guy like me trying to work my way off the court and they can't just move around me. There's no excuse for that."

Kyle Filipowski was helped to the locker room after he was hit by Wake Forest fans storming the court on Saturday afternoon.
Kyle Filipowski was helped to the locker room after he was hit by Wake Forest fans storming the court on Saturday afternoon. (AP/Chuck Burton)

Filipowski dropped 17 points and had eight rebounds in the loss on Saturday. The 20-year-old — who Yahoo Sports’ Krysten Peek has going No. 11 overall in the NBA Draft this summer in her latest mock draft — has averaged 16.9 points and 8.2 rebounds per game this season.

No. 10 Duke enters Wednesday’s game with a 21-6 record, which has it in second in the ACC standings.

Filipowski’s injury is just the latest court-storming incident to take place this year, and it reignited calls in the sport to end the celebration altogether. The ACC, which doesn’t fine programs for court storming like other leagues do, “needs to do something,” Scheyer said on Monday.

“Players and coaches and officials are the only people who belong on a court … Something needs to be done immediately,” Scheyer said, via The Athletic’s Brendan Marks.