Big Ten Addresses Court Storms Following Incident Involving Iowa's Caitlin Clark
The Big Ten Conference has released a statement regarding court storms following an incident involving Iowa's Caitlin Clark and an Ohio State fan. The Hawkeyes superstar and a Buckeyes fan collided while fans rushed the floor after No. 18 Ohio State upset No. 2 Iowa 100-92 in overtime on Sunday.
Clark and the fan crashed into each other following Sunday's game. Both individuals fell to the floor and the reigning National Player of the Year needed assistance getting back to the locker room.
Monday, the Big Ten issued a statement addressing court-storming concerns.
"The safety and security of student-athletes, coaches and staff is of upmost importance. The Big Ten requires host institutions to provide adequate security for visiting teams from their arrival for a game through their departure," the statement said.
"If adequate security is not provided, there is a process in place that begins with a private reprimand for the first offense, public reprimand for second offense, and the discretion to implement a fine plus additional penalties for a third offense. We routinely review our policy as needed to ensure a safe environment for everyone."
After the game, Clark said she felt fine and just had the wind knocked out of her.
"Yeah, I'm OK, I think," she said. "Great environment. These are the games you love to play in. 18,000 people here. I can see them storming the court, which is totally fine. Good for their students and great win for them. I was just trying to exit the court as quickly as possible so I started running and I was absolutely just hammered by somebody trying to run onto the court and basically blindsided.
"Kinda scary, could've caused a pretty serious injury to me. Knocked the wind out of me, but luckily my teammates picked me up and got me off the court.
Iowa coach Lisa Bluder also addressed the issue in the post-game press conference.
"You know, it's unfortunate the game ended that way and Caitlin gets taken out on the floor," Bluder said. "Gets some inappropriate words yelled at her by fans, by students. That just should not happen. It should not happen. Our players should be safe, they should be able to walk off the floor. That's very disappointing.
"I think Ohio State, great team, great environment, but obviously disappointed with the post-game, our players getting injured trying to walk out of the gym. That's wrong."
Weeks ago, Purdue men's basketball coach Matt Painter voiced his concerns about court-storming. He talked about it after the Boilermakers dropped an 88-72 game to Nebraska in Lincoln.
"Someone's gonna get hurt. It's gonna be a student. Could be one of Nebraska's guys, could be one of our guys, could be someone working the scorer's bench," he said. "Could be anybody. But like, I don't know why people don't get ahead of it. It's happened a lot and I just don't understand that."
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