It’s been over a week since North Carolina came from 13 down in the second half to beat Duke in Chapel Hill, but the matter of the postgame court storming still has not been put to rest. Duke head coach Jon Scheyer has made sure of that, once again affirming his claim that some of his staff members were “punched in the face,” which he first stated in the postgame press conference that night.
On Monday, after Duke’s win over Syracuse in Durham, Scheyer responded to a question about a local district attorney’s claim that there was “zero evidence” to support Scheyer’s accusation, telling reporters, “I know what I saw.”
"I would like to focus on Syracuse, but I'll tell you that I know what I saw and I know what happened with our staff after the game -- and that's the bottom line," Scheyer said. "I'm not going to circle back or get into -- I don't know what was said or wasn't said or what people want to claim
"But I know what happened, and I'm always going to support our staff in those situations and, again, I could have even said more, but I'm not going to do that."
Duke's Scheyer responds to Orange County DA: pic.twitter.com/BRvrKuWGf3
— Brian Murphy (@murphsturph) February 17, 2026
Jon Scheyer claims he ‘could have even said more’ about alleged UNC court-storming incident
The district attorney of Orange County, North Carolina, Jeff Nieman, has recently disputed Scheyer’s account of the postgame court storming and advised that Scheyer “should exercise more discretion” with the media.
Nieman posted his assessment of the situation on social media on Monday.
A week has passed, and what seemed likely is now patently obvious. There is zero evidence that anyone from Duke’s basketball program was “punched in the face” at the Smith Center last week. Nor is there any evidence that a staffer was “trampled on the floor” or “in a complete…
— DA Jeff Nieman (@JeffNiemanNC) February 16, 2026
In the days after the game, Scheyer clarified that the members of his staff were trampled, rather than “punched in the face.” At that point, it seemed Scheyer was walking back his accusations, but on Monday night, he changed his tune.
North Carolina was fined $50,000 for the court storming, though those fines were not related to any of Scheyer’s claims. They were part of a new regulation to curb court stormings and prevent situations like that one that allegedly occurred that night.