Duke Basketball fans. This opinion piece pretty much sums up how I feel about them. Except that I'm not a Tarheels fan either.
http://sportsbore.com/college-basketball/nerd-heaven-krzyzewskiville/
Nerd Heaven – Krzyzewskiville
The students who attend Duke University basketball games are commonly referred to as the Cameron Crazies. Their zany outfits and outrageous chants mesmerize television viewers and intimidate visiting teams. These students camp out for months before home basketball games, just to get standing-room-only tickets. They love their Dukies and have created a trend that’s spread like wildfire through college campuses around the country. Students at schools like Texas, Michigan and Oregon have copied the intensity and choreography of the Cameron Crazies. Jumping up and down, jeering opposing players and painting school colors on your chest have become commonplace. So, I asked myself, who are the Cameron Crazies? How did this all start? What’s behind all that passion for Duke basketball?
Well, in reality, the Cameron Crazies are nothing more than a bunch of nerds taking a break from studying. Behind the blue face-paint and deafening cheers you’ll find a bunch of virgins drinking Red Bull sans vodka. These nerds get more excited about new chants than actually being at a nationally televised basketball game. Most of these nerds haven’t played organized basketball since grade school. While you and I were playing high school sports and drinking Natural Light with girls, these kids were putting in extra work on their senior thesis project. While you were watching Duke vs. UNC games, they were studying for AP classes.
Enter, Krzyzewskiville…
Roman Catholics have the Vatican, Muslims have Mecca and Duke-nerds have Krzyzewskiville. “K-Ville,” as the nerds call it, refers to a cluster of exactly 100 tents where Cameron Crazies congregate and bunk together. The tradition started in 1986 when Kimberly Reed, and her nerdy girlfriends, decided to camp out in line at Cameron Indoor Stadium days before the UNC game just to get tickets. Ms Reed set the bar 24 years ago and that single act forced students to get in line earlier and earlier until eventually it turned into it’s own temporary community.
Today, Krzyzewskiville is a formalized entity all its own. K-Ville has strict rules and is regulated by Duke Student Government. Only a bunch of nerds would create this much bureaucracy just for tickets to a home game (click here to read about K-Ville’s rules). The Duke Student Government rules Krzyzewskiville with an iron-fist. If you don’t pass a tent check or violate one of the other many rules, the “Head Line Monitor” can put you in the back of the line or even kick you out of K-Ville all together. Here’s a YouTube tour of K-Ville showing nerds just being nerds (including the nerdy Duke players).
Krzyzewskiville doesn’t sound like fun at all to me, it sounds like the opposite of fun. No showers, no kegs, no television, no attractive women? A bunch of smelly nerds talking about macroeconomics under flashlights in a Coleman tent sounds like hell. I can’t think of a group of fans in college sports who are bigger nerds than the Cameron Crazies. I can’t even think of a group of fans who are even in the same league. If I were a player visiting Cameron Indoor I wouldn’t be intimidated, I would just be thankful I didn’t choose Duke. I hate nerds, therefore I hate Duke Basketball. Go Tar Heels!
