No. 14 North Carolina came back from 13 points down, and Seth Trimbledrilled the 3-pointer of his life to defeat No. 4 Duke 71-68 on Saturday night in the Dean Smith Center.
What followed was mayhem: two court storms, one when Tar Heels fans thought the game was over, and the second after the final 0.4 seconds ticked off the clock.
For UNC, it was joyous.
For Duke, it was painful — emotionally and, according to Jon Scheyer, physically, too.
The Blue Devils' head coachtold reportersafter the loss that Duke staff members were punched in the face during the game-ending frenzy.
"It's hard to talk about the game when I was most concerned just for the safety of our players after the game,"Scheyer said in his postgame news conference, via The Field of 68. "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.
"[But] I got staff members that got punched in the face. My family pushing people away, trying to not get trampled. 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."
Here's Part II, with UNC hanging on for the win and fans storming the court for a second time.pic.twitter.com/bMi66wc1OP
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing)February 8, 2026
UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham publicly apologized and said that he personally apologized to Scheyer after the game.
"When they rushed the court, a number of people got knocked over," Cunningham said,per The Fayetteville Observer's Rodd Baxley. "But then we had to clear the court again. So when we normally have something like just rushing the court and the game is over, we do have a line by the benches to get people off safely.
"... Obviously, if somebody got injured, that's just really, really disappointing. We'll do the best we can to make sure that doesn't happen, but, again, my apologies to Duke for that."
Here's what UNC athletics director Bubba Cunningham said about the court-storming situation after the Tar Heels' win against Dukepic.twitter.com/vayPYK42wj
— Rodd Baxley (@RoddBaxley)February 8, 2026
This isn't the first time the 38-year-old Scheyer has been outspoken about a court storming.
In fact,he called for the celebration's ban just about two years ago.
At the time, Scheyer was in the second season of his now-four-season tenure as the head coach of his alma mater, which he helped win a national title for as a guard in 2010.
Duke had just been upset by Wake Forest, and star forward Kyle Filipowski injured his knee amid the court storming chaos.
"When are we going to ban court stormings?" Scheyersaid postgameon Feb. 24, 2024.
"When I played, at least it was 10 seconds and then they would run on the floor," headded. "Now, the buzzer doesn't even go off and they're running on the floor. This has happened to us a bunch this year."
Scheyer was asked Saturday night if he still feels like court storming should be banned.
"I think court storming is fine, I don't have any issue with court storming," he said,per The Associated Press. "Just shouldn't have people getting punched in the face. Shouldn't put our players in position where they're face-to-face with people who can do anything at that time. It just takes one reaction. Even today, I had to push people away just to try to protect our players."
Scheyer added, according to the AP: "They won, they should celebrate. "They want to court storm, court storm. But just let's get our guys off safely, that's it. That's where I'm at with that."
While Saturday's double court storm caught the public's eye, given the grand stage Duke-UNC provides, it's happened before.
Actually, just last week,UCF's court storm took tries. The first time, fans were herded back to their seats after officials determined that then-No. 11 Texas Tech was due two free throws because of a last-second foul.
After those attempts, the buzzer sounded once more, and the pandemonium resumed.
