Sports

Kansas State Basketball Court-Storming Incident UPDATE: AD John Currie Formally Apologizes to Kansas

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As several videos chronicling the raucous court-storming incident in Manhattan, Kan., Kansas State University (KSU) has issued a formal apology.

According to ESPN, Kansas State fans flooded the court after their team beat in-state rival Kansas, the eighth-ranked team nationally and the Big 12's reining champion 10 years running. During the chaos, Kansas coach Bill Self found himself pinned against the scorer's table, while his players could not even make their way to the visitors' locker room.

"On behalf of President [Kirk] Schulz and K-State Athletics, I apologize to Athletics Director Sheahon Zenger, Coach Bill Self and the KU basketball team for the unfortunate situation in which they were placed last night at the conclusion of our basketball game," John Currie, KSU's athletic director, said in a statement. "Our security staff, which in similar past postgame celebrations has, according to our procedures and rehearsals, provided a solid human barrier to allow the teams to conduct a postgame handshake and safely leave the court, was unable to get into proper position quickly enough last night and was overwhelmed by the fans rushing the floor."

The KSU Police Department tweeted Tuesday a photo of a student they believed intentionally threw an elbow at Kansas forward Jamari Traylor.

"It's a ballgame," Self said in his postgame presser, according to ESPN. "It's not about chicken-winging somebody when the game's over. Hopefully they can get that corrected. It's fine if you want to celebrate when you beat us. That's your business. That's fine. But at least it shouldn't put anybody at risk."

Kansas State certainly did not act out of the norm, especially since they were unranked and mired in a 14-15 season, but the mob on the court seemed to get out of hand far too quickly.

"K-State prides itself on providing a great game atmosphere in a safe environment and did successfully execute our security plan when we defeated KU last year in Bramlage as well as in 2011," Currie said. "Although no one was hurt last night, we fell short of our expectations for securing the court and escorting KU to its locker room without incident. We are disappointed that we did not do better for the KU team.

"We are reviewing our procedures internally and consulting with our law enforcement partners to determine any steps necessary to improve our game-day security."

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