The adage attributed to Norm Stewart is not in peril.
Missouri basketball will not have to spend a dime in Kansas.
But the Tigers will have to pay a fine after fans stormed the court after their 76-67 win over the then-No. 1-ranked Kansas Jayhawks on Sunday in Columbia. The SEC fined Mizzou $250,000, which will go toward the league’s post-graduate scholarship fund instead of the Kansas athletic department, because KU is an out-of-conference opponent.
If Missouri had stormed the court against another SEC school, the money would have gone to the opposing team.
The fine is part of the SEC’s recently updated field- and court-storming guidelines. Schools are fined $100,000 for a first offense, $250,000 for a second offense and $500,000 for every offense that follows. Each team began anew at the beginning of the 2023 football season.
Sunday was Mizzou’s second offense since the SEC upped the fines on court- and field-storming infractions ahead of the 2023 football season. Missouri fans stormed Faurot Field after Harrison Mevis’ walk-off, 61-yard field goal to beat Kansas State in September 2023. That infraction cost the school $100,000, also to the SEC’s post-graduate scholarship fund, since K-State also is a nonconference opponent.
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Sunday’s incident was a heftier fine.
Best guesses suggest the Tigers will gladly hand over the money.
Mizzou cocach Dennis Gates was even ready to encourage the fans to come onto the court.
“I got upset at the (scorer’s) table for making an announcement to tell our fans not to rush the court. You’ve got to be kidding me,” Gates said. “I was about to, in-game, take the mic, and say, ‘Rush the damn court.’ For real. I just think they deserve that moment.”
With six seconds left in the game, with the fans already shifting toward Norm Stewart Court, Gates called a timeout so that the Jayhawks could get a headstart on leaving the floor.
“We’ve been court-stormed on a lot. Usually I’m the one that calls a timeout and just tells the guys, ‘Stay on the sidelines.’ But that was a classy move by Dennis. I mean, let’s just call it like it is. That was a class move,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “Because somebody could have got hurt, because that was a real court storm. Mizzou played great today, but that court storm may have been even better than Mizzou played. That was a big time court storm, and I was glad he did that, because that gave us a chance to get to the side. That was a class move.”
“Sportsmanship. That’s all it is: sportsmanship. And that’s how I would want to be treated when I become a Hall of Fame coach and I’m the number-one team in the country,” Gates said. “I will want my opponent to respectfully do the same. And no matter what, no matter what’s going on, I’m always going to treat people how I want to be treated, regardless. And I think player safety is important.”
