Reilly Says Stop Rushing the Court; We Disrespectufully Disagree

I think I’ve calmed down enough now after my roller-coaster afternoon in which I (and everyone else) was allowed to comment on Reilly’s columns, and then kind of allowed, and then not at all because we are mindless serfs who will obey Rick Reilly. Stupid Reilly and ESPN.

Anyway, what was that column even about? Well, it was a bunch of rules Rick laid out for when it is or is not appropriate to rush the court after a college basketball win. I’m not going to go through the whole column. Suffice it to say, there are a lot of criteria–no lottery pick on your team, not if you’ve beaten a team less than 15 spots ahead of you, not if you’ve won a national title in the last 20 years, or have been to the Final Four in the last 5, and not if you’ve beaten that team in the last 5 years, and so on.

The thing that’s so very stupid about it is: who cares? It doesn’t make watching basketball any less enjoyable. Reilly’s just being a grouch. Are you personally offended when a bunch of college kids go celebrate a victory? Is it bad for the game? Does it make the other team feel bad? It doesn’t really matter.

There were even a couple instances Reilly listed where the players themselves summoned the fans (students) onto the court, or when it was a seniors last game.

I say, storm the court whenever you want. Listen, these are college students we’re talking about here. It’s their school. It’s their team more than any professional team can ever be your team. You see the players on campus, at parties, etc. And most importantly, you only have four years to enjoy it. So I say enjoy it. It’d be weird (and illegal probably) to do this in the pros, but in college, the basketball team are your peers: Classmates, roomates, drinking buddies. It’s as close to having a family member be a superstar athlete as most people will ever get. So go wild. Have fun. Storm the court. Celebrate.

I think student’s should rush the court every chance they get, because it’s going to be the last time you’ll ever be able to celebrate and relish a win to this extent. Sure, if you’re a D-1 school and you beat a community college, it may not be in the best taste, but Pitt beats UCONN in exciting fashion or something like…get on the damn court.

And Reilly, stop being such a curmudgeon. Just let the kids have fun, man.