Duke men’s basketball coach Jon Scheyer said a male staff member had a bloody lip and looked as if he’d been in a brawl in the locker room after Saturday’s loss to North Carolina and two subsequent court stormings by fans in Chapel Hill.

He said the injured staff member is fine now. Duke has declined to identify the individual or what his job title is. The basketball program has many individuals outside of players and the coaching staff in attendance at games.

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“He got hit in the face, got tramped, looked like he had been in a complete brawl after the game and he’s doing better now, but that should never happen,” Scheyer said. “And that’s exactly what happened.”

Scheyer said Saturday evening that staff members had been punched in the face. He said Monday the male staff member was the only one.

The ACC fined North Carolina $50,000 for a violation of the league’s event security police after UNC’s 71-68 victory. Seth Trimble’s 3-pointer in the final second gave UNC the win. Fans stormed onto the court before officials added 0.4 seconds back on the clock. The fans had to leave the court, but after Duke’s final possession ended without a shot attempt, the fans again stormed the court.

Video shows that at least one fan threw a bottle toward Duke players and staff members.

“I came back in the locker room and he’s got a bloody lip and he’s disheveled,” Scheyer said Monday. “He didn’t know what happened. He got trampled on the floor. It was not a good situation, but he’s doing better. He’s fine. Ready to move on. I don’t have anything more to say other than that was a very unsafe situation for him, our staff, our families, our players.”

The ACC implemented the field and court storming rules in the offseason. Duke star Kyle Filipowski was injured during a 2024 incident at Wake Forest, helping to usher in the new rules.

"We accept the ACC’s fine for having unauthorized people on the court before Duke and the officials could completely clear the floor on Saturday,” UNC said in a statement. “The video we have reviewed confirms we followed our protocols to get Duke’s players and bench personnel and the game officials off the floor safely.”

North Carolina athletics director Bubba Cunningham spoke to the media after the game to address the incident.

“I apologize to coach, his family and, obviously, if somebody got injured, that’s just really disappointing,” Cunningham said. “But we’ll do the best we can to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

North Carolina coach Hubert Davis referred back to Cunningham’s comments when asked Monday about the court storming. He said that he had communicated with Scheyer since Saturday night.

Clemson coach Brad Brownell said he is concerned about the safety of players in situations like that.

“I certainly understand the concern,” he said. “I’d hate it for them to go away. Obviously, player safety needs to be at the forefront because I do think we’re going to have an incident where some kid comes face to face with a player and a player’s not sure what that kid’s going to do and one of our players or somebody’s player is going to do something that is not going to be good. But it’s self defense. Some guy’s going to be defending themselves or thinking he needs to. So I think we have to be really careful. I do think there’ s got to be a way that we try to get the players off the court as quickly as possible.”