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When the game ended, and the frenzied celebration began, and Florida State’s fans stormed the court, most of the North Carolina players were already gone.

Most, but not all. Five Sacrificial Rams remained.

Greensboro’s David Dupont, a 6-foot-5 senior forward who starred at Grimsley, was among the Tar Heels on the court for the final 14.2 seconds of Florida State’s 33-point victory Saturday afternoon.

In the days since, the Internet and talk radio have been abuzz about the walk-ons known as Blue Steel — Dupont, Stewart Cooper and Patrick Crouch — and reserves Stilman White and Jackson Simmons, who waded through a sea of people on their way to the locker room.

“It was odd,” Dupont said Tuesday, “but coach (Roy) Williams explained it was a misunderstanding and apologized about that. Basically, we are all past it.”

Williams said he conferred with Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton, and they agreed it would be safest if the Heels left before the fans rushed the court.

Williams said that meant everybody, and he has blamed leaving the five behind on confusion and miscommunication.

Williams said he was trying to avoid a repeat of Las Vegas, where one of the Heels’ managers was knocked down during UNLV’s victory celebration.

Dupont’s dad, David W. Dupont of Greensboro, said he has spoken to his son since the game.

“It’s really not my place to talk about it,” the father said Tuesday. “You have to understand, I’m his father first. And as a parent I’m emotionally involved.”

A former player at James Madison, he understands the workings of college basketball.

“The kids themselves are just looking forward to Thursday,” he said. “They had what I would call a hellacious practice (Monday). They want to put that (Florida State) game behind them and just go play Virginia Tech.”

It’s another big game, another chance for a rush-the-court situation.

Karl Hicks, the ACC’s associate commissioner for men’s basketball, said each member school sets its own security and crowd-control protocols.

“We do have a league policy that fans are not allowed on the playing area,” Hicks said. “But we leave it to the individual schools how to do it. Every year since I’ve been here, we’ve had it happen at least once.”

Hicks was at the Carolina-Florida State games. He’s been on site for court-stormings at Boston College, Virginia Tech and Maryland in the last few years.

“College basketball fans are passionate, and in terms of the spectacle of the sport it is a neat thing,” Hicks said. “But it does present some safety issues. We request the schools to manage the safety of the visiting school’s people and the officials. The ones I’ve observed, they’ve done an outstanding job of cordoning off a path for visiting team and going and getting the officials — eye-balling them and escorting them off.”

Hicks said he believes that policy is the safest.

“It’s more dangerous if you try to keep them off the court,” he said. “You can get in situations where you get kids jumping from places they shouldn’t, or pushing against each other to try to get to the court. The likelihood of someone getting injured is worse.”

And the Heels are not the first team to leave the Tucker Center early. Duke did it in 2006 when Florida State knocked off the No. 1 Blue Devils 79-74.

That night, Seminoles fans started their celebration too early. Florida State led 77-72 when Al Thornton was fouled with 1.7 seconds remaining. Arena officials were unable to hold the fans back.

Officials delayed the game for several minutes to restore order. During that time, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski sent all of his players except the five on the floor to the locker room.

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com