Arizona Basketball: Court Storming on Arizona, Miller tells it like it is

*UPDATED* Coach Miller and his Arizona basketball team cannot even get off the court during post game court storming, will his pleas land on deaf ears?

The story tonight could have been about the officiating, it could have been about poor Arizona defense or great Colorado offense, but the story tonight is about court storming. Only one team seems to be stormed on in the Pac-12, and that’s Arizona basketball.

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Anyone can empathize with a losing team who just wants to congratulate the other team and get into the locker room, even if it means they will get a lambasting from their coach. But when you can’t even walk to your bench after the game is over, and students who have been badgering and cajoling you for 40 minutes get a chance to shove and hit you on the way to the center of a crazy mob is just plain unfair.

Coach Sean Miller spoke to the media post-game and had plenty of things to say. He is warning the Pac-12 that things are getting bad for his players with these court storming events, and his player may just have to defend themselves, he doesn’t want them to get punished. Can you blame him? He makes some great points and Larry Scott and the Pac-12 referee’s need to figure out what to do about it.

Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott was in attendance tonight, this was not lost Wildcats fans who tweeted their non-filtered feelings about Scott and his lack of love for the Arizona basketball program. Miller seemed to resonate a bit with them in his comments.

Maybe they can fine the school enough money they will control the crowd, or they will have to put up barriers, or maybe more time gets put on the clock. We think the opposing team should get charged three points, and it may change the outcome of the game, and everyone will think twice about storming the court if they carry out this rule.

Wildcats fans tonight reported that fans of other teams in the Pac-12 are always saying that the Wildcats aren’t a great team, so why do they storm the court after a win? Is Arizona a rival for every team in the Pac-12? Colorado needed a bid to the NCAA tournament, and everything just seemed to fall into place for them tonight. Funny how that happened.

Not saying the Cats played their best game or being a sore loser, just thinking of the safety of our beloved Cats. They have been injured enough this season, God forbid they get hurt by fans, their safety should be paramount to the league. Larry Scott should care about Arizona; the school puts Pac-12 on the NCAA Men’s Basketball map.

Don’t agree with our ideas on how to regulated court storming and how to protect our guys? How would you solve this issue?

Larry Scott had this to say according to Bruce Pascoe of the Arizona Daily Star:

"“Court and field storming is something that has been of concern,” Scott’s statement said. “The conference has proposed rules with penalties to address this, but the universities have not supported such rules to date.”"

Here is just part of his comments in a video from ESPN:

Here is the full transcript of what he said:

Let’s hope there will be no court storming in Utah, and the altitude the Cats will be playing at will be much lower than Denver, they just looked pooped the whole game. Time to show the world that Arizona can bounce back, the week off and the fancy uniforms didn’t help the Cats tonight, a tad more hustle and unselfish play at the end of the game may have.

More wildcats: Arizona Basketball: Women’s program needs new direction

*UPDATE*

The Pac-12 agreed to look at court storming again, and Utah students did not storm the court, that’s something!

BearDown Arizona!