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View Full Version : Pod phenomenon - having UNC fans cheer against Duke in early rounds


CallUsPaulus
03-10-2009, 02:16 PM
Just curious how many times this has happened. We're in a situation this year where, due to the regional pod system, there's a good chance Duke and UNC will both be playing their first two rounds at Greensboro. Obviously, it's nice to be close to home, but the disadvantage is that fans have tickets to the entire session. So in a full arena, you have maybe 1/4 Duke fans. If they get in a close game, you can count on the 1/4 opposing fans to root against us (obviously). However, the 1/4 UNC fans will be incredibly rabid against, and probably drag all the neutral fans, who are prone to rooting for the underdog anyway, into the mess. So it's a situation where at least 75% of the crowd is against you, which turns it basically into an away game.

Off the top of my head, I can't remember if this has happened in the past 8 years, but it must have, right? Did it ever hurt Duke in a close 1st or 2nd round game?
jv001
03-10-2009, 02:26 PM
Just curious how many times this has happened. We're in a situation this year where, due to the regional pod system, there's a good chance Duke and UNC will both be playing their first two rounds at Greensboro. Obviously, it's nice to be close to home, but the disadvantage is that fans have tickets to the entire session. So in a full arena, you have maybe 1/4 Duke fans. If they get in a close game, you can count on the 1/4 opposing fans to root against us (obviously). However, the 1/4 UNC fans will be incredibly rabid against, and probably drag all the neutral fans, who are prone to rooting for the underdog anyway, into the mess. So it's a situation where at least 75% of the crowd is against you, which turns it basically into an away game.

Off the top of my head, I can't remember if this has happened in the past 8 years, but it must have, right? Did it ever hurt Duke in a close 1st or 2nd round game?

This will always happen when Duke and unc are in the same pod. The unc fans will always root for Duke's opponent. Most of the other fans will root for the underdog just as you mentioned. But as far as being placed in another region we will still be rooted against just because we are Duke. The only place I can think of would be New York where we might have fans in our favor. If we play in Greensboro, we will have some Duke fans there to help offset the unc fans. Go Duke!
bdh21
03-10-2009, 03:03 PM
Just curious how many times this has happened. We're in a situation this year where, due to the regional pod system, there's a good chance Duke and UNC will both be playing their first two rounds at Greensboro. Obviously, it's nice to be close to home, but the disadvantage is that fans have tickets to the entire session. So in a full arena, you have maybe 1/4 Duke fans. If they get in a close game, you can count on the 1/4 opposing fans to root against us (obviously). However, the 1/4 UNC fans will be incredibly rabid against, and probably drag all the neutral fans, who are prone to rooting for the underdog anyway, into the mess. So it's a situation where at least 75% of the crowd is against you, which turns it basically into an away game.

Off the top of my head, I can't remember if this has happened in the past 8 years, but it must have, right? Did it ever hurt Duke in a close 1st or 2nd round game?

If I recall correctly...

That was a huge problem in Charlotte in 2005. Duke and Carolina were in the same building. Carolina fans knew for a month beforehand they'd play in Charlotte; Duke snuck in after Chris Paul was suspended for a game (for punching Julius Hodge... somewhere...) and Wake lost early in the ACC tourney. Duke fans didn't have much time to buy tickets, and there were not many available after all the Carolina fans had nearly picked the ticket supply clean.

Every team holds an open practice the day before games start. Normally this is just free shooting and an impromptu dunk show--these things never get too much attention. During Duke's open practice, however, several hundred Carolina fans showed up to taunt and heckle the team. During the first round game Duke had a relatively tough game against 16-seed Delaware State, winning by 11. The crowd was rabidly against Duke. The same went for the second round, 8 point win over Mississippi State.

On the other hand, there aren't really any areas where everyone likes Duke, and neutral fans will root for the upset in any building (just like loud, drunk, obnoxious Mountaineers were rooting loudly for Belmont last year).

I think there are 2 main problems from sharing a site with Carolina. Carolina fans are far more numerous and thus will buy out the overwhelming majority of tickets available. If Duke played in Greensboro and the other protected seed were, say, Memphis, then a lot more tickets would be available for Duke fans who wanted to buy. Also, Carolina (along with Maryland) fans are probably the ones most willing to go out of their way to root AGAINST Duke, so you could see repeats of open-practice heckling whenever Duke and Carolina share a pod.

My recommendation to Duke fans: In the future if there's a pod in North Carolina (Charlotte, Greensboro, or Raleigh) just get tickets in January. Try to snatch them up before the Holes can. If Duke doesn't end up in that pod you can always find some poor, desperate Holes to sell em to later.
MulletMan
03-10-2009, 03:12 PM
Ummm... yeah, January. Or now. You know, whichever:

G-bro tickets still available (http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0E0040967FEF4578?brand=ncaa)
JDev
03-10-2009, 03:20 PM
I remember being in Charlotte in '05 and it was a UNC home game. But, no matter where Duke goes, it will likely only have 1/4 of the fans or less, and the other 3/4 will be rooting against Duke for a few reasons: they are Duke, and they will be the favored team for at least the first two rounds and non-partisan tourny fans always root for the underdog. This would happen in Greensboro, or Phoenix, or anywhere. It probably wouldn't be quite as bad if UNC fans didn't make up the bulk of the rest of the crowd, but the flip side is that if Duke was in G-boro, you would hope Duke fans account for more than 1/4 of the crowd.
OldPhiKap
03-10-2009, 03:28 PM
Didn't we have to play a regional in Rupp Arena one year? There's a good idea.
JDev
03-10-2009, 03:33 PM
Didn't we have to play a regional in Rupp Arena one year? There's a good idea.

Yeah in '02 when Indiana upset the Williams-Boozer-Dunleavy-Duhon-Jones Duke team in the Sweet Sixteen. It was an IU home game essentially.
Atlanta Duke
03-10-2009, 04:12 PM
Didn't we have to play a regional in Rupp Arena one year? There's a good idea.

Duke played Kentucky at Rupp in the sweet sixteen in 1980 and won

http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/Statistics/Games/19800313Duke.html
Indoor66
03-10-2009, 04:23 PM
Duke played Kentucky at Rupp in the sweet sixteen in 1980 and won

http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/Statistics/Games/19800313Duke.html

I was at that game and the atmosphere was quite intimidating.
Atlanta Duke
03-10-2009, 04:27 PM
I was at that game and the atmosphere was quite intimidating.

No doubt

Last blast for the Bill Foster coached edition of the Blue Devils
bird
03-10-2009, 04:43 PM
I was at the Delaware State game, and Delaware State deserved the cheers it received. Especially the band. Easily the best pep band I have ever seen and heard.
hurleyfor3
03-10-2009, 05:16 PM
Yeah in '02 when Indiana upset the Williams-Boozer-Dunleavy-Duhon-Jones Duke team in the Sweet Sixteen. It was an IU home game essentially.

Also the subregional in 1998, although I think Coach brought that one on himself by whining about it.

You want to talk about being jobbed, though: Illinois had to play Kentucky in Rupp in the 1984 regional final.
OldPhiKap
03-10-2009, 05:23 PM
Of course, the flip side was 1988 when we played the first two regional games in the (then-new) Dean Dome and Carolina got shipped out West to play Loyola-Marymount. One of my favorite Duke memories is a huge group chanting GTH,C (and ES, DS, ES) in the Dean Dome, then going over to He's Not Here to watch Carolina out West.
weezie
03-10-2009, 05:29 PM
I was at that game and the atmosphere was quite intimidating.

Heck, every NCAA tourney Duke game I've been to in the past 15 years has had anti-Duke rabid fans, including games at MSG and the Meadowlands. The players must certainly be used to it by now. I sometimes wonder if we lose out on possible recruits who might not want to be booed at by what seems like most of the universe.

I'll bet there are ABD fans on Mars who would boo us if they got the chance to do so.
SharkD
03-10-2009, 11:00 PM
Ummm... yeah, January. Or now. You know, whichever:

G-bro tickets still available (http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0E0040967FEF4578?brand=ncaa)

At $193 per seat, for upper-level tickets, it's no surprise. Yeowch, that's steep. :eek:
Ignatius07
03-10-2009, 11:23 PM
For 6 games, though, and we're not talking about the Georgia Dome here. Still, you can get better prices on StubHub.
jv001
03-11-2009, 10:26 AM
Of course, the flip side was 1988 when we played the first two regional games in the (then-new) Dean Dome and Carolina got shipped out West to play Loyola-Marymount. One of my favorite Duke memories is a huge group chanting GTH,C (and ES, DS, ES) in the Dean Dome, then going over to He's Not Here to watch Carolina out West.

I was at those regional games as well and we had some fun at unc's expense. Isn't it funny how the unc and Duke fans get so riled up over the rivalry. It seems to me that sometimes I had just as soon see unc lose as Duke win. That just doesn't seem right. I may have to rethink this whole situation. I never want to be the typical unc fan. I had rather be like wheat or amvet65. Go Duke!