Opposing players and the Crazies

[SupaDave]

I had completely forgotten about that! And the escapades of the Rice Dieters- now that is another off-topic thread. Nurmi looked about 100 when I was there, and I think he made it another 20 or 30 years.

I thought this was certainly worthy of off-topic discussion and started a thread.

[jimsumner]

Let me give you another one.

My freshman year, fall 1968, Duke hosted East Tennessee State. Easy win, right?

Pre-game warmups. The visitors got into a circle and started doing a Harlem Globetrotters routine, spinning basketballs, around the back, between the legs, looking good.

Bunch of white guys from the sticks channeling Meadowlark and Curly. It was hilarious. The students were having a great time with the whole thing.

Until the game started. Then Harley "Skeeter" Swift and his teammates torched Duke. Turned out those Hillbillies had game. Swift scored about 20, had about half that many assists and ETS won by eight.

Probably a lesson there.

[dukestheheat]

Something similar happened when Carolina, of all teams, played in Cameron in 1992. Duke obviously had a great team that year, but Carolina had beaten us a month earlier in the Dean Dome. The game in Cameron was not only the rematch, but also the regular season finale and Senior Day for Christian Laettner and Brian Davis -- no way we were losing that game. We played well and ultimately won, but the one guy we absolutely couldn't stop was Hubert Davis. He single-handedly kept Carolina in the game and I think he finished with 35.

At one point in the second half, he went down with an injury of some kind -- nothing major, maybe a tweaked ankle or something like that, and he wasn't down for too long. He was able to get up and walk to the bench, and the crowd started to give him some polite applause. Then K stood up and started waving his arms up and down, as if to say, "C'mon, this dude is killing us -- he deserves a much better ovation than that!" The crowd responded, and the golf applause crescendoed into a full-blown standing ovation.

Despite being a Heel, Hubert Davis was generally recognized as being a good guy, so it was a pretty cool moment.

....about this event once over in Chapel Hill, at the Dean Dome when he was there shooting over the summer to prep for his pro season (Knicks?); I was over there on business and took the chance to walk through the building, and there he was. Really nice guy and he said he totally remembered being clapped for and respected by the Crazies to help him up from that injury (a slight ankle twist or something minor).

dth.

[Travi_K]

During the late '90s I recall a "you can't dunk" chant during a Wake Forest pre-game layup line, leading to a Wake player dunking and shattering the backboard. Player and crowd got good laughs out of it.

Also, I remember Jeff McGinnis having a lot of back and forths with the Crazies. In particular, I remember him pointing and laughing at my favorite sign in Cameron history. McGinnis was rumored to have slept with Phil Ford's wife and the sign said, "McGinnis, have you driven a Ford lately?"

I was at this Wake game and a walk on player is the one that did it if I'm not mistaken. They had to bring the goals down from the rafters and shot clock sat on the ground. It was the great 99 team. memorable chants of "you got Branded" When Brand blocked a shot and "whos your daddy Battier"