Jon Scheyer says Duke staff members were punched in face during UNC's court storming: 'This rivalry is not about that'

No. 14 North Carolina came back from 13 points down, and Seth Trimble drilled 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 coach told reporters after 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."

This isn't the first time the 38-year-old Scheyer has been outspoken about his distaste for 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 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?" Scheyer said postgame on Feb. 24, 2024.

He also added back then: "When I played, at least it was 10 seconds and then they would run on the floor," he said. "Now, the buzzer doesn't even go off and they're running on the floor. This has happened to us a bunch this year."

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.