Duke 78 Miami... who cares

Most of you know of my love for Duke basketball and Coach Krzyzewski in particular. You can imagine how excited I was when my little brother got me tickets to a game for Christmas. We started the 9 hour drive to Durham, N Carolina Friday morning after dropping the kids off at my parents house. While it was tough to leave the boys behind, I know they had a great time (I called constantly just to make sure)! We got there around 8:30pm and did a quick drive though of the campus. Its was just as amazing as I imagined. We headed over to Cameron Arena a little early on Saturday and took in the sights. It was even better with day light. The arena is right across from the football stadium which is next to the la cross stadium and tennis area. Its quite an impressive sports complex.

All around the arena, are rows and rows of tents. Students camp out in order to get first dibs on student seating. Its a first come, first serve basis. No tickets, just an i.d.

When we headed inside, we were given a special treat of being allowed on the court. We had to stay off the actual playing surface, but got to stand right there on the very surface Coach K has walked thousands of times!

The Amazing Coach K.

We checked out the rest of the arena including the Hall of Fame area and got a history lesson on the team and their accomplishments. I found a little something special that I would like to dedicate to Seth:
Once we got to our seats, and took it all in, we started to see why Duke and its fans are so popular, or is it crazy?!? From the minute the students are let in, the taunting begins. The opposing team is beat down emotionally from start to finish. They couldn't even practice in peace. When the team is announced the entire student section says, "Hi (insert name here)" in the most condescending way possible. When the game started, every time Miami took possession, the students jumped up and down and let out a distracting "Ooooooohhh" or did the extended arm finger wave for lack of a better description (see video). The students were in their face every second Miami had the ball. They didn't let up once. They even did an air ball chant accompanied by a tomahawk chop when appropriate.

The cheers for Duke were deafening and it was such a shock to hear a huge silence fall over the crowd when a free throw was being made. A loud, "whoosh" followed each successful free throw with arms going from over your head down to your sides.

The game started a little scary. At one point Duke was down by 16 points. The first period and half of the second was sickening. However, the band tried to lighten the mood with every time out. Here is an example of some of the fun:

With brilliant leadership and amazing stamina, the Blue Devils came back and even took the lead for a while. Unfortunately, a miss by Duke at the buzzer sent the game into overtime. After an intense 5 minutes, Duke came out on top 78 to 75. It was definitely the game to be at.

I can't thank my brother enough for the tickets. We had an amazing time. It definitely ranks in the top 5 best experiences of my life so far! Thanks to my husband for being such a good sport.

This is the first and probably last time you will see Jon in a Duke shirt!

More pics on Flickr.