Column: In defense of court-storming

The inevitable backlash came a few minutes later. “ ‘Overrated’ chant and the rush the floor. Way to contradict yourselves,” tweeted Raphielle Johnson of CollegeHoops.net. “A team with 26 league titles just courtstormed after beating a team with 1 after winning for like the 49th time in 50 home games,” Sports Illustrated’s Andy Glockner added.

And the rationale makes sense. After all, the Tigers have now won 23 consecutive home games against Harvard. Former Princeton forward Kareem Maddox ’11 was adamant on Twitter that Princeton-Harvard is not a “rivalry,” citing the Tigers’ all-time series record of 128-39 as evidence. Seemingly every basketball columnist has penned their own rules for when fans can and cannot storm the court, most of which would exclude Princeton’s win on the basis of history.

But when we’ve heard all year about how much better the Crimson is now than in years past, when Harvard comes in with a shiny number to the left of its name, does the history really matter? More importantly, why do there have to be rules surrounding when it is and is not okay to celebrate? Did the court-storming really detract from anyone else’s enjoyment of the game?

It certainly added to the fun for the students who had what could be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I was not among the fans rushing the floor on Saturday — while the specifics of “no cheering in the press area” are ambiguous, I’m pretty sure that leaping over the table to hug Doug Davis is frowned upon — but had I been in the stands, I would have done the same.

Even among Princeton fans, however, not everybody agrees. After we posted a picture of the court-storming on Twitter (shameless plug: @PrinceSports!), one follower replied, “Altho I’m happy about the win, this is just stupid — act like ya been there before!”

Who, exactly, had been there before?

Nobody in that student section had ever seen their team defeat a ranked opponent, at least not as a member of the Princeton community. The last time the Tigers defeated a top-25 foe was in 1997 when coaches Mitch Henderson ’98 and Brian Earl ’99 were wearing uniforms, not suits. And the last time Princeton fans saw a ranked opponent fall in their own house was 35 years ago, long before any current students or players were born.

Sure, Princeton has historically dominated the Crimson. But for all of the freshmen in attendance, the rivalry was brand new; even sophomores knew of Harvard only as the team that took the Tigers to the brink last year.

Denton Koon had never beaten Harvard. T.J. Bray had never faced a top-25 team in front of his home crowd. Doug Davis may have been tackled by fans after beating Harvard once already in his career, but this year’s Harvard team is better, and this year’s Princeton team is worse. Last year’s playoff game matched two strong teams with similar capabilities; this year’s victory came as a surprise.

Which is exactly the point: In college, though the colors and location of the student section may stay the same, the faces are constantly changing. This year’s campus has no memory of even the 6-23 Tigers of 2008, not to mention the glory days of the 1990s. Sure, any good Princeton sports fan knows about the nationally ranked Tigers of 1998, but there’s a big difference between reading about history and experiencing it as a fan.

So while lifelong fans and journalists may think of Princeton as the Ivy League dynasty, the student section will always live in the present. And that means that when Harvard comes in with national attention and a top-25 ranking, and Princeton prevails in the fourth meaningful, tense battle between these teams in the last two years, we will storm the court even if the Crimson has lost 100 straight games here.

After all, we’ll only be here for four years. We might as well make the best moments count.