Fan Behavior

[Ima Facultiwyfe]

I share this view. In fact, at one point in the second half, just as Maryland was starting their comeback, I turned to a friend and said, "I've never seen Cameron this quiet for a big game."

The crowd was much like the Pitt crowd two weeks ago -- they were loud when something good happened, but would lose focus when things weren't going their way. They finally got up and made some noise after Rodney's two free throws cut it to 67-66 ... that was the first defensive possession that generated any heat from the crowd.

Plus, I was hoping for some cleverness for Maryland's final visit ... nothing but stale stuff -- an early chant of Not Our Rival and a late chant of ACC ... ACC (very short because he couldn't really celebrate until Amile was fouled with 1.1 second left). Not even a chorus of "Amen".

VERY weak sauce from the Crazies.

A good indicator of how many of the students present are not regulars can be in noticing how many "O"s you hear during the anthem. Over the last three years that obnoxious practice has been eliminated. Obviously last night there were many in the student section who hadn't darkened Cameron's door in a long, long time or they would have known that that was passe. If they didn't know THAT then they also probably didn't know what else was expected of them these days in CIS. It's not surprising to see casual observers holding down seats lose focus when their support is needed most.

Props to the Upper Crusties above the rail this year. They've stood for prolonged periods and cheered more than I've seen them do in my 40 years in Cameron. So proud to be one of ya! Go Duke!

Love, Ima

[Des Esseintes]

A good indicator of how many of the students present are not regulars can be in noticing how many "O"s you hear during the anthem. Over the last three years that obnoxious practice has been eliminated. Obviously last night there were many in the student section who hadn't darkened Cameron's door in a long, long time or they would have known that that was passe. If they didn't know THAT then they also probably didn't know what else was expected of them these days in CIS. It's not surprising to see casual observers holding down seats lose focus when their support is needed most.

I'm not sure this is fully accurate. I was an undergraduate '99-'03, and the "O" was disallowed, if not shortly before my arrival, then during my time. (Sorry for the fuzziness.) People have done it sporadically down to today, largely because it's fun, but most have acceded to K's request not to. If I had to guess why you saw it more last night than usual, I would say people were extra-jacked for the game against MD and wanted a little frisson of rulebreaking. Why that didn't translate into more energy in the arena, I have no idea. But the "O" has been verboten far longer than any undergraduate currently at Duke.

[tbyers11]

I'm not sure this is fully accurate. I was an undergraduate '99-'03, and the "O" was disallowed, if not shortly before my arrival, then during my time. (Sorry for the fuzziness.) People have done it sporadically down to today, largely because it's fun, but most have acceded to K's request not to. If I had to guess why you saw it more last night than usual, I would say people were extra-jacked for the game against MD and wanted a little frisson of rulebreaking. Why that didn't translate into more energy in the arena, I have no idea. But the "O" has been verboten far longer than any undergraduate currently at Duke.

Or the MD fans in the audience could have been the ones chanting the "O". Makes sense to me as it is an Orioles tradition.

[greybeard]

Newton, yes.

Greybeard, I'd be rather surprised if Duke invented pointing at someone and shouting stuff. I know we think we invented everything, but we didn't.

Maybe so, but the Crazies did put it on the map, added a little something-something to it, that for an old school guy did not sit well. Now I think it fine, and, at their best, the crazies probably are. Glad to read that K has set the bar to demand that of them.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

A good indicator of how many of the students present are not regulars can be in noticing how many "O"s you hear during the anthem. Over the last three years that obnoxious practice has been eliminated. Obviously last night there were many in the student section who hadn't darkened Cameron's door in a long, long time or they would have known that that was passe. If they didn't know THAT then they also probably didn't know what else was expected of them these days in CIS. It's not surprising to see casual observers holding down seats lose focus when their support is needed most.

Props to the Upper Crusties above the rail this year. They've stood for prolonged periods and cheered more than I've seen them do in my 40 years in Cameron. So proud to be one of ya! Go Duke!

Love, Ima

The loud, sustained "O" was from a group of Maryland fans way up against the wall near the American flag. They were able to times to project remarkably loud cheers for their team, partly because of their location.

[throatybeard]

A good indicator of how many of the students present are not regulars can be in noticing how many "O"s you hear during the anthem. Over the last three years that obnoxious practice has been eliminated.

Oh, thank God. Praise eight pound, six ounce, newborn infant Jesus. That had to be by far the dumbest practice in Cameron.

Not sure if this is relevant but wanted to share my personal feeling on something. I do everything possible to get a ticket to every single game. However, when the only ticket available is for the standing room tickets in 17 and 19, I turn them down every time and just watch on TV. Reason being, I just don't feel right being in those sections. One, I was never a student at Duke, and two, I am well beyond College age. To me those sections are just special and should be reserved for real Crazies, aka DUke Students. I recognize that during Christmas break they have to open it up to the public and put fake Crazies in the seats, but I cannot tell you how ridiculous the 30, 40, 50, 60 something aged folks look in those sections. Most are dying for the standing halfway into the first half, and trying to keep up with the cheers. (Most don;t and end up just staring at the game and not cheering at all. Anyway, maybe it is not fair/right to hold that view, but I promise you the day will never come when i use one of those tickets even if it means being relegated to Tv at home. just ain't gonna do it... Not my place to be there. I do feel comfortable in the upperbowl and I am an Iron Duke, so no problem being a "Crustie"

It may sound nuts but that is just how I feel about it...

100% agreement. Age is age, as Lester Freamon says. We don't put Jeff Mullins in the games anymore.

I am perfectly comfortable being encrusted.

[DBFAN]

For Several years now, I have felt that the crazies have gotten quite boring. Not saying that anyone is obligated to be creative at a basketball game, bit the only chant over the last 5 years that is clever ( to me at least) is the "you let the whole team down". If there are others, not enough of them do it to be heard. When I was a kid I used to love their sarcasm and arrogance. My fav thing they used to do was this sarcastic Ohhhhh when a player from another team made some highlight dunk, like that didn't impress them at all.

Yesterday I noticed as well, that when the crowd was intense and loud, Maryland couldn't hold on to the ball. PG had a very hard time brining it up the court But those moments were non existent when we got out to an 8 or 9 pt lead. The crowd would just disappear. Obviously the team has a lot to do with that, but I just wish the crowd would stay involved for longer periods of time

[Newton_14]

I don't know guys, i mean I respect what everyone else who were there felt with the crowd but for me it was really good. Leading up to the tip it was just awesome. Electric, great atmoshere, loud. I felt it stayed that way throughout the first half. It did get somewhat quiet when Maryland made their run, but during the last 3 minutes Crazies and Crusties were on their feet, making a lot of noise. I definitely thought it helped the players. Only times my buddy sitting beside me could hear me was during free throws or timeouts.

Just how I saw it.

[summerwind03]

I don't know guys, i mean I respect what everyone else who were there felt with the crowd but for me it was really good. Leading up to the tip it was just awesome. Electric, great atmoshere, loud. I felt it stayed that way throughout the first half. It did get somewhat quiet when Maryland made their run, but during the last 3 minutes Crazies and Crusties were on their feet, making a lot of noise. I definitely thought it helped the players. Only times my buddy sitting beside me could hear me was during free throws or timeouts.

Just how I saw it.

I thought it was a fairly good crowd as well.

Did anyone mention the sign--"We are never ever getting back together!"? That one is still making me giggle.

[Newton_14]

I thought it was a fairly good crowd as well.

Did anyone mention the sign--"We are never ever getting back together!"? That one is still making me giggle.

So glad you brought that up! I meant to mention it and never got around to it. I thought that sign, (Playing on the famous Taylor Swift song) was a classic and easily the best, most creative sign at the game. major props to whoever came up with that.

[OldPhiKap]

I thought it was a fairly good crowd as well.

Did anyone mention the sign--"We are never ever getting back together!"? That one is still making me giggle.

Pretty sure I dated her mother.

[Troublemaker]

I thought it was a fairly good crowd as well.

Did anyone mention the sign--"We are never ever getting back together!"? That one is still making me giggle.

I thought the sign was clever, too. It was shown on TV and commented on by the broadcasting team -- a chuckle from Doris Burke and perfunctory razzing of her male play-by-play partner [Dave O'brien?] for knowing the song.

[Indoor66]

I thought it was a fairly good crowd as well.

Did anyone mention the sign--"We are never ever getting back together!"? That one is still making me giggle.

You mean this one?

[Dev11]

The loud, sustained "O" was from a group of Maryland fans way up against the wall near the American flag. They were able to times to project remarkably loud cheers for their team, partly because of their location.

I was sitting in front of them. Most of the 'O,' and for that matter most of the pro-Maryland noise, seemed to be coming from them. The students started directing their ire up to the group behind me sometime early in the second half.

They were pretty quiet as they walked out.

[Tripping William]

I attended the game on Saturday as well. The only comment I'll add that I have not seen mentioned is that, shortly after halftime (after Mitchell made his two buckets to cut the Duke lead to 39-37 and after Duke took its timeout), there was that sequence at about the 18:30 mark where Sulaimon missed a 3, Thornton rebounded, Hood missed a 3, Thornton rebounded, and Hood drilled a 3 to give Duke a 42-37 lead. K exploded, clearly waving his arms for the crowd to make noise. At the time I said to myself, "Yeah, this crowd *does* need that bit of encouragement right now."

[the_grad_student]

I attended the game on Saturday as well. The only comment I'll add that I have not seen mentioned is that, shortly after halftime (after Mitchell made his two buckets to cut the Duke lead to 39-37 and after Duke took its timeout), there was that sequence at about the 18:30 mark where Sulaimon missed a 3, Thornton rebounded, Hood missed a 3, Thornton rebounded, and Hood drilled a 3 to give Duke a 42-37 lead. K exploded, clearly waving his arms for the crowd to make noise. At the time I said to myself, "Yeah, this crowd *does* need that bit of encouragement right now."

He couldn't be too upset with the crowd overall - after the game he said the following from http://www.cbssports.com/collegebask...meron-send-off:

"That was vintage Cameron, man," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "That was one for the ages."

[Tripping William]

He couldn't be too upset with the crowd overall - after the game he said the following from http://www.cbssports.com/collegebask...meron-send-off:

"That was vintage Cameron, man," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "That was one for the ages."

Yes, I saw that in his post-game presser. But the two are not mutually exclusive.

[Henderson]

Mark Turgeon said after the Duke-Maryland game that he's going to miss the Duke-Maryland rivalry a lot.

What a crock. First, there never was any rivalry except in the head of some deranged turtles. Second, Turgeon has been at Maryland all of 2 ½ years, and his only 2 wins against Duke were last year. Before that, he was never even in the ACC, either as a player or a coach.

[throatybeard]

For Several years now, I have felt that the crazies have gotten quite boring. Not saying that anyone is obligated to be creative at a basketball game, bit the only chant over the last 5 years that is clever ( to me at least) is the "you let the whole team down". If there are others, not enough of them do it to be heard. When I was a kid I used to love their sarcasm and arrogance. My fav thing they used to do was this sarcastic Ohhhhh when a player from another team made some highlight dunk, like that didn't impress them at all.

I'm fine with this. I've long contended that the "creativity" metric is overrated, and largely borne out of a self-congratulatory impulse about wheee, we're such clever Duke people. Even when more kids went to the games, if you're really honest with yourself, no matter when you were in school, you weren't as non-stop hilarious as you think you were. There were probably a couple pee-in-your-pants funny things per season. Like in this thread, people are talking about the Phalanx in sepia tones, but honestly, we didn't come up with that much I would deem "creative." Mostly we did stuff like shout at Clemson during warm ups about how they'd be better if Woodrow Dantzler played basketball. We managed to coordinate call-response cheers for Duhon with the undergrads. (Warm it up Chris/I'm about to). This isn't exactly writing King Lear.

Furthermore, our esteemed coach's penchant for talking us out of being boorish limits what you can do. In 1996, we thought it was "creative" and hilarious to make posters about Jeff McInnis and Phil Ford's wife, and Jamison and Carter, um, together. I'd like to think that sort of stuff isn't happening now.

Here's what I want from the Crazies, and even then I'm not going to be upset if it doesn't happen.

1) Show up.
2) Be loud.
3) No, really loud.
4) Like, sustained loud.
5) Because loud.

And even if that doesn't happen, I'll sit on my butt six states away and not lament how much better it was when Wojo or Bob Verga severed the beer. I mean, I'm sure as heck not driving 900 miles and being louder.

[blazindw]

Here's what I want from the Crazies, and even then I'm not going to be upset if it doesn't happen.

1) Show up.
2) Be loud.
3) No, really loud.
4) Like, sustained loud.
5) Because loud.

I'm with you on this. So loud that the other team can't think. Through all of the creativity, my favorite moments in Cameron were where we were so loud that if I screamed in my neighbor's face, s/he wouldn't hear it.