By JAMES MADDEN
Duke head coach Jon Scheyer said that a Duke staff member was “punched in the face” during a court storm following his team’s 71-68 loss to No. 14 North Carolina in Chapel Hill on Saturday. Scheyer said the staff member was shaken up by the incident, calling him disheveled after he was “trampled,” according to Scheyer.
The Tar Heels’ student section originally stormed the court prematurely after North Carolina’s Seth Trimble hit a go-ahead three with less than a second remaining.
A visibly upset Scheyer talked about prioritizing his players’ safety during potential court storming following the last-second loss on Saturday.
“I got staff members that got punched in the face. My family, pushing people away, trying to not get trampled,” he told reporters. “That’s not what this game is about. You give them all the credit in the world… but obviously that was a scary ending. This rivalry is not about that.”
With the loss Saturday, Scheyer moved to 5-3 all-time against North Carolina as the head coach of Duke.
A video has yet to emerge of the alleged punching of the Duke staff member, but Scheyer provided an update about the situation on Monday.
“He’s fine. 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 said Monday. “He got trampled on the floor.”
Duke fell to 21-2 this season and remained No. 4 in the updated AP Top 25, with the Blue Devils traveling to Pittsburgh to face the Panthers on Tuesday.
Follow James Madden on Twitter
Follow Adam Zagoria on Twitter
Follow ZAGSBLOGHoops on Instagram
