Duke’s Kyle Filipowski injured in court storming after Wake Forest’s win over Blue Devils

Duke star Kyle Filipowski injured his knee on Saturday after Wake Forest fans rushed to the center of the floor following the Demon Deacons’ 83-79 win over the Blue Devils in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Fans stormed the court before the clock expired in an apparent security failure that saw Filipowski tangled up in the middle of a stampede around midcourt. Teammates came to his aid and had to help him to the locker room as he hobbled on one leg.

“I felt a bunch of hits on my body,” Filipowski told Greensboro, North Carolina, CBS affiliate WFMY. “This one was the worst of them.  Like I said, it’s just really ridiculous how, you know, that situation’s handled. I’ve already heard that there (are) some videos of (me) getting punched in the back, so I absolutely feel like it was personal, intentional for sure. There’s no reason why they see a big guy like me trying to work my way off the court and can’t work their way around me. There’s no excuse for that.”

Filipowski was grimacing in pain after the incident and had one arm around a Duke staffer as he made his way through the tunnel back to the locker room. Teammates and coaches noticed he had been clipped during the court storming and did their best to try and brush off eager and apparently unaware Wake fans.

“When are we going to ban court-storming?” Duke coach Jon Scheyer asked after the game. “It’s a dangerous thing.”

Scheyer added that right now he is unsure of Filipowski’s status moving forward.

“When I played, at least it was 10 seconds before people stormed the court,” Scheyer said. “Now, the buzzer doesn’t even go off and they’re running down the floor.”

Filipowski scored a team-high 17 points in the losing effort and leads the team this season in points and rebounds per game. The former five-star recruit is in his second season with the program and a projected top-20 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.