Jay Bilas, eat your heart out.
Mississippi Valley State fans stormed the court Monday night after their team earned their first victory in 28 games.
Mississippi Valley State’s basketball team entered their Monday night contest against the Prairie View A&M Panthers with a shocking 0-27 record.
But, after a season of losing, they finally prevailed and earned a 57-51 victory and fans stormed the court in a slightly more muted fashion than Saturday’s Wake Forest debacle.
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE PICKS UP ITS FIRST WIN OF THE SEASON AND EVERYTHING WAS PURE GOLD!
THEY’VE STORMED THE COURT IN ITTA BENA! WORTH EVERY PENNY! pic.twitter.com/Y9qMaMMbCG
— Mid-Major Madness (@mid_madness) February 27, 2024
In contrast to the pandemonium that occurred Saturday, when Wake Forest fans stormed the court following their team’s defeat of number three-ranked Duke, Mississippi Valley fans calmly congregated on the court and danced around, celebrating with their players.
Now, obviously, there weren’t nearly as many fans in the stands in Mississippi as there were in Wake Forest. Wake and Duke are top-tier programs playing in the ACC, the NCAA’s premier conference for basketball. Mississippi Valley is an HBCU that plays in the tiny Southwest Atlantic Conference. They’re obviously going to have a lot fewer people for potential court-storming opportunities.
But, when analysts like Jay Bilas call for a complete and total ban on courtstorming, this is what they’re trying to take away from us. The opportunity for college students to celebrate something beautiful with their fellow classmates together as a school community is priceless.
On Saturday, Wake fans took it too far, bashing into Duke’s Kyle Filipowski and potentially injuring him as they celebrated their team’s underdog win against the Blue Devils. (RELATED: Down Goes Frazier: Surprising College Basketball Contender Knocks Off Number One Team In Unlikely Upset)
Duke’s head coach Jon Scheyer called for a ban on the tradition after the incident, “When are we going to ban court-storming?” Scheyer asked, according to The Associated Press. “Like, when are we going to ban that? How many times does a player have to get into something where they get punched or they get pushed or they get taunted right in their face? It’s a dangerous thing.”
Duke alum and ESPN analyst Jay Bilas took it a step further and called for court stormers to be arrested.
“Just say, ‘You’re all detained’ and give them all citations, or arrest them,” Bilas suggested.
Court storming could be stopped as soon as tomorrow, but nothing is going to change… pic.twitter.com/vCsDcb1xwr
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) February 26, 2024
Bilas, who has often quoted a Jeezy lyric “Who knew what came with jail, who knew what came with prison? Just ’cause you got opinions, that make you a politician?” now wants people to go to jail for enjoying a timeless tradition.
Bilas, you’re a loon. Let the kids have some fun.
In the 133 years since Dr. James Naismith invented basketball, fans have stormed the court hundreds, if not thousands of times. Injuries of this nature rarely happen. The Wake fans who trampled Filipowski should be ashamed of themselves. Reprimand them individually, yes. But take away a beloved tradition from an entire country because of a few bad apples? That’s preposterous.