Rush the court Maryland, and be proud of it

By Tim Hall
Mar 5, 2010

101

comments

Mark Thomas' post yesterday got me thinking....

There are a lot of issues in sports that we should spend a lot of time trying to correct. Drug testing, college football's postseason, and the camping situation for Duke basketball games all still need some tinkering.

Storming the floor in celebration after a big win isn't one of them.

Maryland beat No. 4 Duke on Wednesday night 79-72. It was a great win that kept the Terrapins in the ACC regular season championship race. It was senior night. It snapped Maryland's six game losing streak to Duke. I think it warrants some celebration.

It's not time to put a permanent end to court-storming across America. It doesn't happen every game. It's not intended to hurt anyone. And more importantly, no one is forced to do it. If students don't want to risk injury, stay in your seat and take cover. It'll be over soon.

No serious injuries were reported from Maryland's celebration after the Duke win. There may have been the obvious bumps and bruises. The Duke players made it out just fine, so did the Maryland players. Gary Williams got to the press room in one piece, and so did Coach K.

We don't need to have a rule or regulation that sucks every last ounce of fun out of college sports. Honestly, does it really bother you that a group of college kids want to celebrate, in their own way, a huge win? If anything bothers me about Maryland's students it's their obnoxious use of the F-word in their chants.

When Maryland storms the floor for five straight games, then I'll start to have a problem with it. When N.C. State rushes the floor when it beats N.C. Central, then I'll take a stand. When Carolina storms the floor after a 19-point win over Florida International I'll have a problem with it. The circumstances around Wednesday's game for the lead in the ACC were rush-the-floor worthy.

I came across one columnist on the internet that had a problem with Oklahoma State rushing the floor after knocking off Kansas. No it wasn't a big win at all....Kansas was only the No. 1 team in the nation with a 27-1 record. If I was in the student section at a place that's struggled for hoops supremacy in the Big 12 like OSU I'm sure I would've wanted to sit in my seat and twiddle my thumbs after that win.

This writer said that OSU fans displayed no confidence that their team had any chance to beat Kansas by rushing the floor. If you believe this philosophy than you should never be allowed to celebrate anything. Don't let your parents take you out to dinner to celebrate a great report card in school, because you should've expected it. No allowing your wife to take you somewhere special after that huge promotion you got at work, because you should act like you've been there before.

Celebrating an accomplishment means you had no confidence? That makes no sense whatsoever. If you accomplish a great feat like beating Duke in basketball, it proves you do have confidence, otherwise you would have lost. I guess we don't want to see players celebrating on the court after a big win either. That would show that they lacked confidence and were shocked by the outcome. It's a ridiculous theory.

I hate how certain schools see storming-the-court as sinking to a low level. Kansas, North Carolina, Duke and Kentucky fans can storm the court if they want. If those schools get in a position to grab a huge win, be my guest. Go celebrate on the floor with the players.

When I was in college I took part in plenty of field-rushing parties in football. I was part of the college idiots that helped up-root the goalposts, carry them to the local pond, and toss them in.

Football is scarier than hoops, and I made it out every time. Rushing the field or storming the court is not as dangerous as everyone makes it out to be. You really have to be off in your own world to get hurt. It's not like the L.A. riots of 92'. Students aren't looking for blood, they're looking to have 15 minutes of fun.

There's never a goal to go out and physically harm anyone. There isn't any ill-advised plan. The thought process that goes into court-storming is equal to the thought process that went into Tiger Wood's transgressions - not a lot of thought. It's just students that run to the center of floor and jump around. Ooooo, that sounds so dangerous doesn't it?

When you think about all the bad and illegal things a college student can be doing, rushing the court seems like something that should be encouraged.

Most Recent Comments

RE: Rush the court Maryland, and be proud of it

Mr. Hall don't let these losers who have e jobs that allow them the inordinate amounts of time to post hate mail about your insights and journalism abilities get to you...they are just killing time until they can get home to the porno sites

RE: Rush the court Maryland, and be proud of it

Let's face it. Maryland fans want to be like the dukies and tarholes. They feel as they don't get any respect from the basketball world. Their chants cross the line when they use profanity as they do for most games.Grow up Maryland basketball fans and please Tim,go start another career beacuse your journalism style is awful.
- Posted by sosad

Amen brutha

RE: Rush the court Maryland, and be proud of it

Let's face it. Maryland fans want to be like the dukies and tarholes. They feel as they don't get any respect from the basketball world. Their chants cross the line when they use profanity as they do for most games.Grow up Maryland basketball fans and please Tim,go start another career beacuse your journalism style is awful.

RE: Rush the court Maryland, and be proud of it

jbell. When Maryland beats Duke they are not a joke.

RE: Rush the court Maryland, and be proud of it

All I am saying is that when you have accomplished the things that Maryland has there is no need to rush the court like you won another national title. Like my pops told me, act like you've been there before
- Posted by bpayne812-take two

Probably when someone get hurt or crushed then something will be done. It's kind of difficult to stop them since there is nothing between the players and the crowd. I don't like it, I agree with you that you should act like you've been there before. I do think much of it is created by the bad behavior of the people in the stands and that would include Duke. Also, the feeling that the fans are part of the team. So, when their team wins a big game they feel they can celebrate with their team.

WRAL Sports Fan

Tim Hall