Duke coach Jon Scheyer provided an update and further context on the team staff member who was punched in the face during the court storm after the Blue Devils’ 71-68 loss at rival North Carolina on Saturday.
“He’s fine. But after the game, what happened was I came back in the locker room and I see he’s got a bloody lip and he’s disheveled and he didn’t know what happened,” Scheyer told reporters Monday. “He got trampled on the floor. That was my main concern after the game and that’s why I said what I said.
“It was not a good situation. But he’s doing better, he’s fine. Ready to move on. I don’t have anything more to say other than that was a very unsafe situation for him, our staff, our families, our players.”
Tar Heels fans stormed the court twice, once prematurely after Seth Trimble’s go-ahead 3-pointer with four-tenths of a second left on the clock and once again when the game was officially over.
North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham apologized to Scheyer after the game, and the school was fined $50,000 by the Atlantic Coast Conference.
North Carolina coach Hubert Davis confirmed Monday morning that he had also been in contact with Scheyer about the incident.
While the loss was Duke’s first since Dec. 20, snapping a 10-game winning streak, Scheyer was far more frustrated about the safety issue when talking to reporters after the game.
“For me, it’s hard for me to talk about the game when I was most concerned just for the safety of our players after the game,” Scheyer said Saturday. “I don’t want to make it about that because Carolina, they played a great game to win, and that’s a heartbreaking loss for our team.
“I got staff members that got punched in the face. My family pushing people away, trying to not get trampled. And that’s not what this game is about. You give them all the credit in the world. It’s not about the game, but obviously that was a scary ending, and this rivalry is not about that.”
–Field Level Media
