Some people might remember okm's short-lived basketball blog
DukeBasketball2006 which was sadly abandoned after the blue devils crashed out the nationals at the sweet-16 round.
Anyways. Since this
is a blog about cultural observations (among many other things) I decided to include
excerpts from an essay okm wrote which was included in a compilation of reflections by exchange scholars recently - the book is called
Similarity in Diversity for anyone interested.
...
There is perhaps no event which captures the spirit and essence of the college experience than watching, in person, a game featuring one’s own school versus a rival school. 100,000 fans pack Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor when Michigan takes on interstate rivals, Ohio State in arguably the biggest college football rivalry. 9,000 screaming fans jam Cameron Indoor to support Duke against North Carolina.
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I had no idea that college sports in the US is as big of a phenomenon as it is until I started my studies here at Duke University. In particular, I had no idea that Duke Basketball was of national as well as of regional and local prominence. Sure, I had heard about Duke by watching NBA stars such as Grant Hill and Christian Laettner and more recently Elton Brand. But in my mind, Duke seemed to be overshadowed by Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing’s alma maters – UNC-Chapel Hill and Georgetown respectively. But when I got here, I became more familiar with some of Duke’s more recent accomplishments. National champions in 1991, 1992 and 2001; 9 straight Sweet Sixteen appearances at the NCAA tournament; the 4th most number of total wins in college basketball; and arguably one of the most successful active coaches in college basketball, Mike Krzyzewski or coach K, who is now also the coach of the USA men’s basketball team.
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I managed to get tickets for the final home game of the season – against our bitter rivals down Tobacco Road – University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill or the Tarheels (our more ‘colorful’ nicknames for UNC shall not be revealed here).
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Some of the grad students had camped out at Cameron Indoor Stadium, voted one of the best sporting venues in the US, since 8pm the day before to ensure that they get a good standing spot in the grad cheering section. I arrived with two of my course mates at 3pm and was in the 300s out of 700 spaces. ESPN, the leading sports broadcasters in the US, dedicated one of its channels, ESPNU (U for university), for complete coverage of the day’s activities leading up to the game itself, scheduled to be played at 9pm. James Carville, President Bill Clinton’s former campaign manager in 1992, was at Duke to give a talk, probably in exchange for a front row seat at the game.
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The atmosphere in the stadium was electrifying even before the Carolina players took to the floor. On paper, Duke was clearly the stronger team. We had two All-Americans in guard JJ Redick and center Shelden Williams, who had both returned to Duke for their senior year to win a national championship. We had already sewn up one of the four no.1 seeds for the NCAA tournament and had won the ACC league easily. We had beaten Carolina on their home court earlier in the season and theirs was a young team who had lost 6 of their best players to either graduation or the NBA draft the year before. But it was a Duke-UNC game and for these games, you might as well throw out the form book and expect an intense, competitive and close game. Which was exactly what it was.
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