It's one of the downsides to being a college basketball team everyone wants to beat -- and Arizona Wildcats coach Sean Miller has had enough of it.
Colorado fans stormed their team's home court when their Buffaloes defeated No. 9 UA 75-72 Thursday night. This is a common occurrence for Arizona, which has been one of the best teams in the country for the last several years.
But after Thursday's game and subsequent court storming, Miller said the on-court celebrations need to be altered for the safety of players and fans.
"Eventually what's going to happen in the Pac-12 is this: An Arizona player is going to punch a fan, and they're going to punch the fan out of self-defense," Miller said.
"And when it happens, only when it happens, will everybody say, 'We have to do something so that when the game ends we have a deep breath to be able to leave the court, or at least shake the other team's hand and then get to the locker room.'
"And then, if the court wants to be stormed, fine. But until that happens, it's fallen on deaf ears, because there's only one team right now that the court's stormed on."
On Friday morning, UA athletic director Greg Byrne took to Twitter to echo Miller's concerns.
First, congrats to CU on their win. Coach Miller & I have both been asking for the last several years to have court storming addressed.
— Greg Byrne (@Greg_Byrne) February 25, 2016
Each school has had to present their plans to get teams & officials safely off of their courts and fields.
— Greg Byrne (@Greg_Byrne) February 25, 2016
Unfortunately, we have been stormed in 10 of our last 11 road losses. This has to be addressed because someone is going to get hurt.
— Greg Byrne (@Greg_Byrne) February 25, 2016
Arizona (22-6, 10-5 Pac-12) has one more road game this season, at No. 22 Utah on Saturday.
