Duke head basketball coach Jon Scheyer bizarrely walked over to the Cameron Crazies and apologized to the senior students after losing to UNC on Saturday night. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the crowd, fans threw drinks at the Tar Heels on the court.
I cannot recall it ever happening before.
However, as weird as it is, I appreciate the sentiment behind it. Scheyer — or really any coach — taking a moment to acknowledge what fans (mostly students) do for the program is cool. Especially at basketball schools, where they camp out for weeks to get into the game.
It was still strange.
Of course, there is a lot of irony in how things went down after the Blue Devils lost on their home floor to give their biggest rivals the regular season series sweep. Scheyer was so adamant that player safety is priority No. 1 in college basketball when Kyle Filipowski nearly suffered an injury that required him to be carried off of the court during a court storm at Wake Forest.
And now Duke students are throwing things at North Carolina. Surely that can’t be safe.
I get that Scheyer can’t control the actions of others, I do. It isn’t his fault that the Cameron Crazies threw drinks. The Tar Heels were also taunting them. I know.
None of that changes the optics of the immediate postgame.
Scheyer called for a ban of court storms and then apologized to students while other students threw drinks at players. Filipowski also tripped forward Harrison Ingram during the game. He pretty clearly initiated contact, faked an injury, and walked off of the court.
To bring the whole season full-circle, it was the same leg that was injured during the court storm. You can’t write it any better.
Duke went 0-2 against North Carolina this year. Scheyer is very sorry.