Lightning Jacq Strikes Again

and I pride myself on being so observant, tsk tsk (like a few months ago when The Mentalist was promoting its premiere I immediately had the sensation that I'd seen that story ago, as if "The Mentalist" was just a serious "Psych." Of course since I was in my weird blogging phase I dind't write down that thought as soon as it came to me so there's no proof of my automatic genius..darn)
But anyway ESPN is showing the Duke vs Florida State game and like any good alumna I'm watching because I heart Duke (and Florida State always seems to play us hard which is incredibly annoying; almost as annoying as the fans who are sitting behind the broadcast team and doing things obnoxious college fans should be doing, though I real wish they would just stfu and sit the f*ck down) when they showed one of those famous, and apparently mesmerizing UPS White Board commercials.
you know the ones:


And upon my approximately 15,ooo viewing of one of those commercials it dawned on me: how ironic that UPS a main rival and kind of an improvement of the postal service would have as the theme to its main marketing campaign, and has become rather connected to them, a song by The Postal Service. Wow I am so fracking smart. And yeah I really do think.

At least I think it's ironic- it might just be coincidence- I never can tell.

(maybe this is the difference; coincidence is when a clown dies on his birthday- irony is when the clown dies at your birthday party? because by dying, the clown, which is supposed to make you happy, instead makes you sad, right? i think that goes along with a definition of irony I read someplace where irony is where the intended meaning is the opposite of the real or literal meaning...or I may have just made that up, but it seems to make sense)

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Duke's Black History-C.B. Claiborne

That man on the right is the answer to a trivia question I never thought to ask before a few weeks ago.
His name is C.B. Claiborne and he was the first Duke basketball player who was black.


I’m not sure if he was Duke’s first black athlete but even if he’s not, there should be some recognition of him, maybe a ceremony or plaque. Because at Duke we do love our basketball and are reverent towards its history. Earlier this month when I was curious about who was the first black Duke basketball player and I googled that I couldn’t find anything relevant and it was only by a chance reading of DBR about Coach K’s podcast and I saw it mentioned (in the context of Barry Jacob’s new book) that I was able to find out his name
And I knew nothing about him
And it just felt wrong.

So in an effort to get the word out and make it a bit easier for whoever after this that is curious here is some information I found about C.B. Claiborne, the first Black player in the storied and illustrious history of Duke Basketball


From the Jan/Feb 2006 issue of Duke magazine

The first African-American basketball player at Duke, C.B. Claiborne, grew up in the last capital of the Confederacy. The inscription in front of the old Danville (Virginia) Public Library said so. His neighbors had their ways of reminding him, too.

Every day on his walk to junior high, he would stop at the railroad tracks that separated his part of town from the white part and line his pockets with rocks. The ones he didn't use to fend off the kids who would accost him he would drop back on his way home so that he would have an arsenal for the next day.

"It was an anachronism of a town, all right," he says.

In 1965, when he arrived as a freshman, Duke was better than Danville--"more open, more cosmopolitan," Claiborne says--but it wasn't Berkeley, either. Here, Claiborne clams up a bit, hesitant to name names or talk openly about some of the problems he ran into at school, but over the course of several conversations, hints of difficulty inevitably slip through: Some older players used to harass him during practice; he wasn't notified of an end-of-the-year athletic awards banquet at the notoriously segregated Hope Valley Country Club; an engineering professor told him it was impossible for him to earn an A in his class. And, maybe most telling of all: He spent so much time at nearby North Carolina Central University, a historically black college, that he had his own meal card there.

At Duke, he had to walk around campus with that hulking "pioneer" tag around his neck. He was an active member of the Black Student Alliance ("It was hard not to [be]. There weren't many of us around back then, you know.") and took part in the famous Allen Building sit-in, but he wasn't the outspoken leader others expected someone in his position to be. He is by nature reflective, introverted, an engineer. He wasn't Huey Newton with a jump shot, and that was problematic for some people.

It was a tough line to walk, especially since he was putting up Nick Horvath numbers on the court[Ed. Note- you can find his stats here]--4.1 points and 1.9 rebounds per game. His favorite memory from his playing days is of beating UNC in a triple-overtime, 1969 classic. He sunk some biggie free throws to seal it. "Almost everyone else had fouled out by then, so that's why I was in there," he says.

But don't cry for C.B. Claiborne. The man has survived the decaying muck of Dixie and the soft (but sometimes hard) bigotry of mid-Sixties Duke to earn three graduate degrees, help create the adjustable steering wheel for Ford Motor Company, and work as a professor for the last twenty-five-plus years. Now, he's at Texas Southern University, ostensibly as a marketing prof, but he'd like to think there's more to it.

"My idea is that in life we have one thing to teach, whether it's marketing or aikido or whatever, and mine is to help people become more self-aware," he says. "I've spent my whole adult life trying to teach college students about the importance of understanding their place in the world.

"But when I was eighteen--self-awareness? I didn't even know that term existed. Probably could've helped."

And from a commenter in a DBR forum

I'm pleased to read that Barry Jacobs has included C. B. Claiborn prominently in his new book.

Back in the late 1960's Duke Basketball was more open. Every year we would get tickets to some games and our parents would drive us up to Durham for a Saturday afternoon game in Duke Indoor Stadium. We would shoot some baskets on the court before the teams took the floor, then we would head up to our seats in the rafters, and watch the warmups and games.

For one game, I had brought my own basketball and a felt tip pen with hopes to get it signed by some Duke players. Prior to the game I had met John Young, a broadcaster with the company that televised the game. Mr. Young gave us a tour of the broadcasting area before the game and got us into the locker room after the game. Bob Verga, Steve Vacendak, Jack Marin etc. were there grouped together and all signed my basketball. Sitting alone on one bench was C. B. Claiborne. He gladly signed the ball that was eventyally signed by everyone including Vic Bubas. (Wish I had that ball today.) I remember telling C. B. Claiborne: "I'm pulling for you!" His very polite reply: "Thank you, young man." That was the first time anyone ever called me "young man."

He is a true gentleman and a real credit to Duke University and Duke Basketball.

And people should know his name.

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Notes on a Victory

89-78
and maybe the sky isn't Carolina Blue after all

An e-mail I wrote just as the game was ending:

y'know how everyone says about Duke-UNC that they hate but respect the other side? well i always thought that was bs. but then i realized as i was in my apartment living and dying with every call and unable to sit down for the last ten minutes that i there were probably carolina fans doing the exact same thing and we were both living and dying in the same moments and we had some connection and I could respect that. I still hate them but I can respect that passion. It must be like what opposing sides in war feel- hate but mutual respect earned on a razor's edge.

Because it was so true-I am not able to watch a Duke game of any importance with my friends out here and so last night I didn’t even try. I just locked myself in my apartment, turned off the lights, so I could rock back and forth, curse and yell at the tv, scare my cats into the other room over whatever their crazy mommy was doing, hopping up and doing strange dancings after each big play-I’m sure if I had been filmed I would have looked totally Brit to the outside observer.
But I now I just know that every other Duke fan and every other Carolina was feeling it so intensely as well and they would be the only ones who could actually understand what it means to have, for a few hours a game mean more than breathing.
It’s fantastic, especially when you win.
To Hate Like This is To Be Happy Forever


Barry Jacobs’ Take
Convention And Carolina Take A Beating

This was no classic moment in a cherished series, no game to remember for its twists and turns, its suspense and drama. Then again, what emerged from Duke’s 89-78 victory over the homestanding Tar Heels, the most points scored against North Carolina this year, will likely shape the remainder of the 2008 ACC regular season race.

And, most assuredly, the first clash between the ACC’s reigning powers will bolster each team’s expectation of success when they re-engage a month from now at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Duke continues to emerge as what coach Mike Krzyzewski said is a “very unconventional team,” finding its strength where others might see weakness. Basketball is usually played from the inside out – getting high-percentage interior shots and earning trips to the foul line have been coaching staples for a century. But this Blue Devil squad has inverted the formula, its success indicated by a 20-1 record, eight wins and no losses in the ACC, and a No. 2 standing in the national polls.

Krzyzewski has been informed by his sojourn as head coach of the U.S. Olympic team, where he trades ideas and stratagems with professional colleagues Mike D’Antoni of the Phoenix Suns and Nate McMillan of the Portland Trail Blazers, among others.

Instead of trying to force his 2007-08 squad into a mold that did not readily fit, Krzyzewski altered the mold.

These Blue Devils attack from the outside in, either by shot or drive. Leave too much space and Duke begins firing from the perimeter. Guard too closely and the Devils take the ball to the basket, garnering layups and fouls or passing unselfishly to a dangerous cadre of shooters who lurk around the 3-point arc like buzzards circling a promising snack.

Duke employed its preferred approach from the outset at the Smith Center, unleashing a barrage of 3-pointers against the more conventionally configured Tar Heels.

North Carolina feeds the ball assiduously to the low post, where Tyler Hansbrough wreaks havoc on defenses and Deon Thompson provides stylish accompaniment. Against Duke, 17 of the Heels’ first 23 points came from that pair.

Clemson extended UNC to overtime a month ago by deploying its deep corps of powerful frontline players to stifle Hansbrough. The arrangement essentially dared other Heels to pick up the scoring slack. Wing Wayne Ellington responded to the tune of 36 points, a personal best, as UNC won by a basket.

Duke made a different choice. With limited options in the low post, it harassed Hansbrough but ceded sufficient room for him to contribute 28 points and 18 rebounds. “The kid’s a great player,” Krzyzewski said. “He takes competitiveness to the highest level.”

Aided greatly by the absence of injured UNC playmaker Ty Lawson, the Blue Devils’ aggressive perimeter defense kept the remainder of the Tar Heels off balance. Exclude Hansbrough, and the Heels made a third of their shots (16-of-48).

“We knew Tyler was going to score the ball, but one of the keys to the game was that really no one else scored points or really did much,” said Duke freshman Kyle Singler. He contributed 14 points and 10 rebounds matched against Hansbrough. “We stand by our defense with great ball pressure, contesting the wings, just force people to be uncomfortable.”

North Carolina’s chief outside threats, Ellington and Danny Green, were a combined 1-11 on threes. Neither scored enough to threaten the two-basket working margin the Blue Devils maintained for most of the second half.

“We weren’t patient,” Roy Williams said of his UNC squad. “I thought we rushed our shots. We didn’t make them play defense.”

Duke also forced 20 turnovers, one short of North Carolina’s season high, and thereby negated any disadvantage on the boards. UNC's young big men Thompson, who fouled out in 18 minutes, and Alex Stepheson, with five turnovers and no assists, were repeatedly caught in uncomfortable situations away from the basket on both offense and defense.

The Devils themselves appeared relatively at ease amid the Dean Dome din. They took the lead for good midway through the period by hitting four consecutive 3-pointers, part of an 8-for-16 onslaught in the period. On the night, Duke hit 13 of 29 from long range, 44.8 percent accuracy. Junior guard Greg Paulus was 6 of 8 on threes, the highest output of his career.

“They got any shot they wanted,” Williams groused. “I don’t know very many times tonight that our defense dictated what shots they got.”

The North Carolina coach did pronounce himself “very impressed” with Duke, however. “They’ve got great chemistry,” he said. “The most disciplined team won the game tonight. The team that did most of the little things well won the game tonight.”

Clearly, though, the absence of Lawson, North Carolina fleet point guard, altered the equation. “You want everybody” able to play, Krzyzewski said. “And certainly you want the quickest point guard in the country to be playing. That has to hurt, no question about it.”

So Duke emerged with a victory, a two-game lead in the ACC race, and the confidence it can defeat UNC even on its home court. The Tar Heels came away from the game knowing that, with the return of Lawson, their catalytic agent, they will be a different and probably better team the next time they face the Blue Devils.

No doubt,but then it’ll be in The Greatest Place on Earth, Cameron Indoor. I can't hardly wait

This may interest only me but, then again most of the stuff on this site probably only interests me.
Here are some game notes from GoDuke.com

No. 2 Duke defeated No. 3 North Carolina, 89-78, on February 6, 2008, at the Dean Smith Center. Duke improves to 20-1 overall and 8-0 in the ACC while the Tar Heels fall to 21-2 and 6-2, respectively.

Series Notes

• Duke snaps a three-game win streak by UNC in the series, including a one-game streak in the Smith Center, and Duke now trails 127-97 overall and 13-10 in Smith Center all-time In ACC regular season play, Duke trails 85-76 in regular season conference play, including trailing 58-30 in Chapel Hill
• Coach Mike Krzyzewski improves to an even 32-32 against North Carolina. [Ed. Note: Yay K!]
  
• Duke’s 10 wins at the Smith Center are the most by any opponent in UNC history. In the ACC, Maryland has eight wins here, N.C. State five, Wake Forest four, Florida State and Georgia Tech three, Virginia two, Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech one apiece and Clemson has not won at the Smith Center.
• Wednesday marked the 125th straight game that at least one team was ranked in the AP poll and 143 of the 159 match-ups since the inception of the AP poll in 1947-48. When both teams are ranked, Duke leads the series 32-31, including a 25-18 mark under Coach K. Duke is 20-18 when both teams are ranked in the Top 10 and now 3-3 when both teams are ranked in the Top 3.

Milestones

• Duke’s 20-1 record through 20 games matches the best start in school history.
• Duke now has 43 seasons with 20 or more wins, including 23 under Coach K and a streak of 12 straight seasons.
• Duke now has 33 wins against teams ranked in the Top 3 of the AP poll.

Win Streaks & Records

• Duke has won 10 straight games overall and all eight of its ACC games at the mid-point of the conference season.
• Duke is 8-0 in the ACC this season and now has a two-game lead in the ACC standings with North Carolina holding onto second place at 6-2.
• Duke has now played in front of a sold out venue in 225 of its last 263 games.
• Duke has won 24 of its last 34 games when both teams ranked in the Top 10 of the AP poll.
• Duke is now 19-11 in 30 games under Coach K when both teams are ranked in the Top 5 of the AP poll.

Duke In February

• Duke is now 488-258 all-time in February, including 161-60 under Coach K. Duke has won six of its last seven and is 65-20 since 1997-98.
• Duke is 3-1 vs. UNC on Feb. 6, including 3-0 all-time in Chapel Hill. The last Duke-UNC game on Feb. 6 was 48 years ago. Overall on Feb. 6, Duke is 16-13 on this date, including 4-2 under Coach K.

Team Highs & Lows

• Duke scored a UNC opponent season high 89 points.
• With 27 free throws, Duke matched UNC’s opponent high for the season.
• Duke’s 47 points matched the most given up by North Carolina in a half this season.
  

Duke Offense

• Duke was 13-of-29 from long distance against North Carolina, marking the ninth time this season the Blue Devils have connected on 10 or more from behind the arc and Duke is 9-0 in those games.
• Duke had six players score in double figures including all five starters and Jon Scheyer off the bench. It was just the second game all season that six Blue Devils scored in double figures along with seven players in the season opener against N.C. Central.
• Duke’s bench outscored North Carolina’s bench 22-4, including 17 points from Scheyer.

Duke Defense

• Duke held North Carolina to just 3-of-17 from behind the arc, extending its streak to all eight ACC games holding opponents to four or less three-pointers. In ACC games, Duke’s opponents have connected on 28-of-101 (.277) from behind the arc.
• Duke forced 20 turnovers from the Blue Devils while allowing 17 assists. It marked the 11th time this season Duke’s opponent has had 20 or more turnovers and is the 18th time in 21 games that Duke’s opponent has had more turnovers than assists.
• Duke had 11 steals against North Carolina, marking the sixth time in eight ACC games Duke has had 10 or more steals. Duke is averaging 10.4 steals per game in ACC action.
• Duke held North Carolina to 28-of-69 (.406) from the field, marking the 18th time this season Duke has held its opponent under 50 percent. Under Coach K, Duke has accomplished that feat 693 times in 925 games and is 613-80 in those game.
• Duke was outrebounded by North Carolina by nine but were down 10 in the category at halftime. Duke outrebounded North Carolina 22-21 in the second half.

Coach K

• Coach K is now 795-262 as a head coach, ranking sixth on the NCAA wins chart and second among active coaches. Only Eddie Sutton, who is fifth overall and tops among active coaches with 800 wins is ahead of him while first overall is Coach K’s college coach the recently retired Bob Knight, with 902 wins.
• With 795 career wins in his first 33 seasons, Coach K is currently second on the NCAA’s list of most victories in a coaches’ first 33 season. He trails Dean Smith, who had 802 wins through 33 seasons.
• Coach K now has 795 wins in 1,057 career games and is looking to become the third-fastest coach to 800 wins based on number of games. Adolph Rupp (972) and Dean Smith (1,029) are already out of reach and Bob Knight is currently third, accomplishing the feat in (1,102 games).
• Coach K now has 722 wins at Duke and ranks seventh on the NCAA’s chart for most wins at one school. In sixth place is DePaul’s Ray Meyer with 724. Coach K is also second among active coaches behind Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim (765).

DeMarcus Nelson

• The senior scored 13 points, shooting 6-of-7 from the line with the majority of those down the stretch, and added five assists, four rebounds and a steal in just 23 minutes with foul trouple.
• Nelson now has 1,160 career points and surpassed Carroll Youngkin (1959-71 – 1,154) to move into 39th on Duke’s career scoring chart. Immediately ahead is Tommy Amaker (1984-87 – 1,168).
• Nelson now has 18 games in double figures this season including six straight and 13 of his last 14, and in 61 career games.

Greg Paulus

• The junior led Duke with 18 points, connecting on 6-of-9 from the field and was 6-of-8 from behind the arc. He recorded a season-high tying four steals and added three assists and three rebounds, as well.
• He now has 11 games in double figures this season, including five straight (and 10 straight games with nine-plus points). He now has 43 career games in double figures.
• Paulus now has six games with three or more steals this season and 16 such games in his career.
• Paulus now has eight games this season with three or more three-pointers and 21 such games in his career.

Jon Scheyer

• The sophomore scored 17 points, including 7-of-8 from the line and 2-of-4 from behind the arc. He added six rebounds, three assist and three steals in 33 minutes off the bench.
• Scheyer now has 12 games in double figures, including his first in the last five games, and 34 double figure scoring games in his career.
• Scheyer’s three steals is a season high and the fifth time in his career he’s had three or more steals.

Kyle Singler

• The freshman had 14 points and 10 rebounds in 37 minutes while shooting 5-of-11 from the field, 3-of-6 from long range, and 1-of-2 from the line. He added two assists, two blocks and two rebounds.
• Singler has 15 games scoring in double figures, including three straight and seven of his last eight.
• Singler now has three games with 10 or more rebounds and three double-doubles, as well.
• Singler now has four games with three or more threes on the season and he has hit at least one three in nine straight games, the third longest streak in the ACC.
• Singler matched his season best with two steals.

Gerald Henderson

• The sophomore scored 12 points, grabbed seven rebounds, dished out three assists and had two steals against the Tar Heels.
• Henderson now has 17 games scoring in double figures this season, including seven of the last eight, and 24 in his career.
• Henderson was just one rebound shy of his career high of eight.

Lance Thomas

• The sophomore scored 10 points, grabbed five rebounds and had two blocks in 25 minutes while shooting 5-of-7 from the field against North Carolina.
• Thomas matched his season high for points and now has two games in double figures and five in his career.
• Thomas recorded a new career high with two blocks.
• Thomas matched his season high with five rebounds.

With The Win, Duke Improved To...

• 1,841-805 all-time, including 722-203 under Coach K
• 504-270 all-time in ACC regular season play, including 280-123 under Coach K and 149-35 since 1996-97
• 830-470 all-time against current members of the ACC
• Duke is 171-43 outside of Cameron since 1997-98 and 80-24 in road contests and 85-24 in ACC road play since 1997-98
• 240-240 all-time vs. ranked teams, including 160-110 under Coach K and 44-18 against ACC ranked teams since 1997-98
• Duke improves to 12-21 vs. the No. 3 ranked team in the AP poll all time.
• 253-47 this decade, more wins than any other team in the NCAA
• 899-227 all-time as a ranked team all-time, including 104-15 as the No. 2 team, 391-73 as a Top 3 team, 481-89 as a Top 5 and 757-170 as a Top 10 team

Oh and that's a 2 game lead in the ACC, most practically.
And with that this should be my first and only Carolina post of the day…unless of course

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My Carolina Gameday Mix

It’s Carolina Day the first of the two most important scheduled days of a Dukie’s year, it's almost a sacred day consecrated with the hate of generations so you have to excuse me for being a little (obsessed) focused.

Go Devils! We're gonna win tonight, Carolina, go to hell! Eat sh*t!"

Songs I listen to before the game to get me inspired
Europe- The Final Countdown [download]
DMX-It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot [download]
John Williams-Duel of The Fates [download]
AC/DC- Hell’s Bells [download]
AC/DC- For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) [download]
Duke University Marching Band- Mystery Track [download]


To Hate Like This Is To Be Happy Forever

If you can’t go to college go to State
If you can’t go to State go to jail
If you can’t go to jail go to Hell
Go To Hell Carolina, Go To Hell! (Eat Shit!)

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Go To Hell Carolina, Go To Hell

this was easily our basketball highlight from the 2006-2007 season

This clip was the only time I've ever agreed with Billy Packer- with 14 seconds left and you're up by 12 what is your star player still doing on the floor (and even though I outwardly say that he was going for the ball I think G-Love knew what he was doing and I love him even more for it.)
But seriously this was a miserable game to watch last year but as soon as this went down and Tyler got up almost crying it made it all worth it and everyone just got giddy and excited. And for once we didn't care (as much) that we lost to UNC. That picture at the moment of contact is still my desktop photo today.
It's sad but true and it's the life of a rival.


There will be blood tonight. I'm excited. Go Duke!!!

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A Moment of Carolina Hate

pretty big game tomorrow. And in honor of, here's an oldie but goodie from after Roy Williams and Kansas lost the 2002 Championship to Syracuse

A short time later Roy Will was introduced as Carolina's coach and still has yet to win a title with players that he actually recruited.
I could give a shit about North Carolina too, Roy.
gthc,gth

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Spear the Turtle

The ACC Season really starts today for Duke at Wasteland
From Duke Basketball Report

Board material from Maryland’s Cliff Tucker!

“I can’t stand Duke. It’s one of the reasons I wanted to come here so I can beat Duke, I already got North Carolina. Duke is next. I cannot stand Duke. I tell people all the time, if they gave me a scholarship and that was my only Division I scholarship, I’d go Division II or something like that. I would never, ever go there. I don’t know what it is, I can’t stand Duke"

And who is Mr. Tucker that he feels that he can make such comments?
A lifelong Maryland fan, freshmen from El Paso. A two time captain of his football team (as a receiver) recruited by Clemson, Georgetown, Texas Tech, UTEP, and Uconn son of Regina and Clifton Tucker ... enjoys video games and watching movies in his free time

Who averages 4.5 points a game 2.4 rebounds and shoots 44% from the free throw line. (and yet thinks he has the right to talk trash. And about how he “already got North Carolina", he had 8 points and 2 rebounds in that game. I’m sure his high school coach Tom Shukit back at Chaplin must be proud)
Hopefully he’s improved his strength and long range shooting and ball handling , he'll need to for tonight against God.

Seriously kid you should’ve stuck to football (so y’know you could've lost to Oregon State)

Spear the turtle


gotta love redneck white guys

God I hate Maryland (though they’re not our rivals.) Win or Lose something will be burning tonight in College Park
{UPDATE: Cliff Tucker had 3 rebounds 4 points and 3 assists. Next time spend less time hating, and more time not sucking.}

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The Wisdom That Comes With Age

Three Dukies over at The Blue Zone (great name,btw) recently wrote a post entitled "Why People Hate Duke Basketball-Part 1" focusing on a "fan" at the Michigan game. In it they decry his media whoring, and according to their description (i didn't see him as I was watching on tv, but I was also washing my hair) it was a pretty egregious violation

"Did he do it to watch the game? No. Not even close. Did he wear a bright orange t-shirt so he could be more recognizable on television? You know it. He waved at the camera and jumped around every time the ball was in front of him. He talked on his cell phone, presumably to his super-proud mother, as she watched her son make an ass of himself on national television.

To top it off, when a group of casual fans (OK, the editors of TBZ and their friends) called this kid out for his media-whore behavior, he had the audacity to make a "T" symbol with his hands and follow it up with an even more douchebaggy "V" symbol. Not only was he acting like a complete sellout, but he was proud of it."

I think it's a general rule that upperclassmen find freshmen as a whole and generally really annoying. But in their description I recognized that what that kid was doing was basically what like 40% (i want to give us more credit) of Dukies have done at some point, though not as annoying and obviously as that guy. Last year when I got tired or incredible squishing and moved over to the White (non tv side) I would alwasy notice some kid in a mustard yellow jacket. And it would always annoy me and piss me off all 4 years that pregame whenever the camera would pan the Crazies that so many people would get all super excited and scream and flash their "We're #1" finger, only to go back to being quiet as soon as the cameras were off (I have a similar minded group of friends who were pissed at this as well.)
And so to be honest as much as media whores angered me, in the picture posted on The Blue Zone there was a far more unforgivable sin happening, namely the girl who was holding up a sign during game action, which is so unacceptable it's sickening (but not nearly as bad as a guy who opened up an umbrella inside during the Carolina game...leading to a Carolina come back that we barely held off 71-70 when JJ stepped out in front of Rashad McCants on UNC's Long Beach play, forcing Raymond Felton to throw the ball out of bounds. I'll never forget that.) The whole point of the game is the game, it's not your clever sign. Signs and costumes are fun and fine, but they are mostly for pregame or halftime, to hold up when the opposing team is near you, or during time outs to mock the other team and its fans. When the ball is actually in play blocking someone's view in Cameron with a sign should be an excommunicable offence.

And as much as I love Cameron (i'm trying to find a way to sneak into the Duke-Carolina game, and I plan on naming one of my kids Cameron as well) I for the most part dissapointed in the deteriorating of our chants and cheers as I went through my 4 years. At times of course they would be amazing (or like my freshmen year when we chanted at the St. John's game "Fire Jarvis" leading to K staring us down angrily, kinda newsworthy) but Cameron just seemed tog row tamer and tamer with most everything being what I called the "roll call" (chanting a player's name followed by 5 claps) or the same tired cheers, including the speeding up of "Let's Go Duke" so that chant which can be so powerful, ends up lasting like 5 seconds before being fast forwarded out of articulation. I mean back in the day, when the Crazies actually earned the title of Cameron Crazies they were making fun of a guy who's parents had both died (I'll admit I tried to get this cheer going against Chris Paul- "How's Your Granddad? He's still Dead") or being allowed to make fun of the other team's fuck up K has cutlitvaed a friendly Cameron where we are to generically support our team while using tame and inoffensive things against the other (at the Maryland game last year me and some friends tried to get a chant for DJ Strawberry "Pass-the-Rock" referring to both the ball and crack, for his dad, it seemed many people were scared to join in.) Of course my friends and I are assholes, we had a fantasy of sitting in the grad student section and injecting a syringe full of AIDS into an opposing player, to make teams fear coming into our house.

And so in order to be constructive and not seem so "back in my day" and old, here are a few chants I have for some of our team this year:

• Gerald Henderson: G-Love (repeated in the manner of the Landlord chant)
• Greg Paulus (who I always referred to as Special Sauce when he was teamed with Josh "Big Mac" McRoberts, and especially when teamed with G-Love): from the G.Love and Special Sauce song " My baby's got sauce/ Your baby ain't sweet like mine"
• Jon Scheyer (one of my jewish friends came up with this one): John-ny Sche-yer MA-ZEL TOV"
• for Zoubek (because when the Crazies started throwing up a Z for Zoubek it looked like a gang sign, and because he's far from it): Zou-bek's gang-sta clap,clap,clap,clap,clap
• I'm trying to do something for Kyle Singler referring to Cingular being the New AT&T
• Demarcus has his D-Marc chant (which is simple and effective)
• for Taylor King (taken from Harry Potter so everyone would get it): Taylor can sink anything, He never misses with his flings, That's why Dukies all will sing, Taylor is our King!
• and for Nolan Smith, the theme from Rawhide: Nolan Nolan Nolan/Keep movin', movin', movin',/Though the [insert opposition’s name here] are disapprovin'/Keep them Dukies movin'/RAWHIDE (i guess that can be replaced by Go Duke!)
• or just a generic "We're Duke. You're not." chant. they'll understand what's being said (or replace "not" with "dumb" or some other pejorative.
  
  

I don't know, I just love the alma mater, Duke (dear ol') and I just want Cameron Indoor Stadium to be full of obnoxious kids chanting offensive things or smart things (that we assume the other school wouldn't understand) to show off our intelligence and arrogance and smugness. Everyone hates Duke anyway, I just hope this generation gives them a real reason for it besides our fans being a little overrated now*


*though the Cameron Crazies are still better than any other student section in the country and are the closest thing to those masters of cheering and heckling, European Soccer Fans, that America has.

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Is It Basketball Season Yet?

alternately titled:"Oh Maryland; she may not be dead nor deaf, but she sure is dumb"

Though I'm still fully confident in Duke's ability to make a bowl game, I think Friday night was the official start date where college basketball practices could be held. Which means one thing if you're in ACC country; it's Basketball season. And so in honor of this occasion and Duke's regular season and tournament ACC championships, (and plus because this article is amazing) I'd like to make fun of the University of Maryland, a school that has never been, and never will be Duke's rival.
This is from Norman Chad's "Couch Slouch" column (via Duke Basketball Report)

To: The University of Maryland

From: Couch Slouch, Class of '81

Re: Graduation rates

I didn't want to write you all again -- I mean, just last month I politely requested that my alma mater eliminate Division I sports -- but several people e-mailed me some rather startling numbers about our hoops-playing, class-dodging student-athletes.

No Maryland men's basketball player who enrolled between 1997 and 2000 graduated within six years. This is commonly called a "zero percent graduation rate," and it ranked us last among the nation's 321 Division I programs --that's 321st out of 321 schools.

Geez, what happened to the academic legacy once created by Lefty Driesell?

Only one other men's basketball program in the ACC -- Clemson, 31 percent -- had a graduation rate below 40 percent. We can't do better than Clemson? Clemson? That's a Stuckey's with a student union.

The NCAA uses a formula called the "Graduation Success Rate" -- actually, in College Park, we call it the "Graduation Failure Rate" -- and this indicates that, uh, absolutely nobody on the basketball team gets out of Maryland alive with a degree.

Well, at least we're not cheating on exams!

I understand that coach Gary Williams is simply recruiting basketball players to win games. He has shown no intent in recruiting students who also play basketball well. But somewhere along the line, can't he find just one 6-foot-3 fella who will sit at the end of the bench with a strong interest in, say, metallurgical sciences?

He did not recruit a single player between 1997 and 2000 -- and that includes all the starters and top reserves on the 2002 national championship team -- who graduated at College Park within six years. None.

"I've graduated 42 players in 18 years," Williams said.

Wow, 42 in 18 years? Heck, MIT's rowing team graduates 42 people every two weeks.

A single woman of 38 is more likely to find a husband at a Daughters of the American Revolution rally than a Maryland basketball player is to graduate within six years.

Williams argues that while none of the top eight players on his 2002 title team graduated within six years, all of them went on to careers in professional basketball. And it should be noted that forward Lonny Baxter did get jailed on a weapons charge within six years of enrolling.

Now, if you ask most Terp alums if they would trade the 2002 national title for a 33 percent graduation rate or a better English Lit department, they'd likely choose the championship.

Great job College Park. I really do see that blush upon your cheek. So it seems quite likely that none of your players can actually spell terrapin. I blame Gary Williams. Spear the Turtle.

(and in the sake of fairness Duke's men's basketball team only had a 67% which seems kind of low. I blame William Avery, Corey Maggette and Elton Brand for leaving after the 99 season. Overall though we have a 97% rate.)

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