With Coach K beginning his 30th season and Cameron Indoor celebrating 70 years of amazing hoops, the time was right for a brand-new Duke Basketball season kick-off event. About a week before college basketball programs can officially begin regular practice, the Countdown to Craziness began.
First, we launched the event’s official website, CountdownToCraziness.com, where fans could vote for the Crazies Choice Awards, check in on the schedule of events, send messages to the team, follow the countdown live and receive a personal invitation from Nolan and Andre to attend the event.
The Crazies Choice awards, spanning the past three decades this year in honor of Coach K, were later presented at different times during CTC. Said Nolan, “The Crazies Choice Awards are like the Oscars or VMA’s, only Duke style and more prestigious.”
The festivities for CTC officially began at 5:30 on October 16th, with live music, games and face painting in K-Ville. Fans outside Cameron could watch Duke videos and follow the countdown to 8:00 PM when the season would begin officially.
The doors to Cameron opened at 6:30 with the next hour and a half filled with on-court contests, videos, and performances by DefMo, Duke University Improv and the Dancing Devils. In addition, our 2009-10 team poster was unveiled and the women’s hoop team was introduced. The lights were dimmed in Cameron, creating a dramatic and exciting atmosphere in the storied stadium.
Among the videos shown were a pair of Duke University improv productions. Our players teamed with the student organization to produce “Season Cancelled” and “Great Moments in Cinematic History.” Said Lance, “We enjoyed doing the improv videos. They were very funny and I hope the crowd enjoyed seeing them.” Highlights included Kyle engaging in a high-speed lemur chase (the NPOY candidate thought his scene “brought the video together and was a very sweet piece”) and Olek re-enacting the famous Gladiator scene and asking the crowd, “ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?” Duke Improv also staged a live skit on Coach K Court.
As the clock approached 5:00, the annual Blue Planet hype video made its debut. This year’s video featured original music produced for the team by Duke’s own Mike Posner, a senior on campus and a rising star in the music industry. Posner’s song “Bring Me Down” blared in Cameron as highlights of our players hooping last season and on the outdoor courts at Central Campus ran on the scoreboard.
Said Nolan, a friend of Posner and a fan of the hype video, “It’s a great song and Mike Posner is a great artist. To have someone so talented here in school, it is great for Duke. He has put on a couple concerts for the students here and everybody loves his music. He is not a hardcore rapper and he’s not trying to be someone fake, he just makes great music. I am honored that he was able to make that song for us and we will be listening to it all year long.”
After the hype video, the dimmed lights and spotlights were turned off and Cameron was dark. At the 2:00 mark, a countdown video aired showing a ball bouncing all over campus. With around 10 seconds left, the video showed the ball bouncing towards and then into Cameron. Shortly after, a remote-controlled ball rolled to center court with a spotlight following it. Coach K emerged under the spotlight, grabbed the ball above his head and the clock hit zero. It was officially time for Duke Basketball.
Before the Blue/White Scrimmage tipped, each player and member of the coaching staff was introduced with the lights still out and spotlights roving all around Coach K Court and the Cameron seats. Our players chose their own entrance song and were introduced by world-renowned sports announcer Michael Buffer (of “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble” fame).
Said Lance, “I thought it was a good idea to pick songs because it brought more excitement for each individual guy knowing they can come out to their favorite song. I chose my song because I am big on old-school hip-hop. When my song came on it got me hype and I almost slammed the Blue Devil.”
Duke legend Jason Williams was in the house at CTC covering the event for ESPN. When asked what song he would have chosen in his day, J-Will replied, “The 2009 Jason Williams would have come out to the same song Nolan chose (Jay-Z’s PSA). I like it. It said, ‘Hey I am here. I am on the scene.’”
After the final player was introduced (Jon Scheyer), the team huddled up around center court and the lights were turned up. The players divided into a white team and a blue squad, but the scrimmage couldn’t begin until the respective coaching staffs were complete.
At this point, the first Crazies Choice was awarded and the honor for Duke’s Best Dynamic Duo of the Past 30 Years went to college hoops legends Bobby Hurley and Christian Laettner. The dynamic duo, winners of two NCAA titles together and in the building to accept the award, then headed to a bench to serve as coaches for the game.
Our players played a pair of 12-minute scrimmages as the CTC crowd saw the 2009-10 in action on the court for first time. “It was amazing, a great atmosphere,” said Nolan. “The team was very excited and the coaches were too, and I think we went out and played a great game. Both teams played hard.”
The White Team won Game One 40-17 with Jon, Kyle, Mason, Miles, Nolan, Jordan and Steve sporting the home whites. Nolan led the way for the White squad with 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting. The Blue Team took the second scrimmage, once again led by Nolan who scored 10 points in the 33-31 victory.
Game Two came down to the wire with a last-second play determining the outcome. With under six seconds left, Casey Peters corralled the ball off a blocked Kyle Singler shot and raced down the court in the waning seconds. His attempt rolled off the front of the rim, but Nolan was there to draw a foul on his putback attempt with .8 seconds remaining. The junior brought the crowd to a frenzy on the charity stripe, sealing the victory by hitting both attempts. On the night, guards Nolan and Scheyer combined to score 43 points and dish out 19 assists with zero turnovers.
During breaks in the action at the scrimmage, videos were shown on the scoreboard with messages from former players, contests took place on Coach K Court, and the final three Crazies Choice Awards were presented. Jason Williams accepted the award for Best Comeback of the Past 30 Years (“Miracle Minute at Maryland in 2001), coaches Nate James and Chris Carrawell accepted the award for Best Cameron Chaos of the Past 30 Years and Christian Laettner took home his second Crazies Award for Best Buzzer-Beater of the Past 30 Years (“The Shot” vs. Kentucky in 1992). Noted the NCAA Tournament’s all-time wins leader, “I have to say, after my wife and chidren, that’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me — The Crazies Choice award for best last-second shot.”
CTC in Cameron concluded with a dunk contest where Andre and Olek were named co-champions. “The OC” and Dre led after the first two rounds and met in the finals with both players receiving perfect scores in their head-to-head matchup. The celebrity judges, Kevin White, Coach P, J-Will and the Blue Devil, then opted to declare the contest a tie. Other dunk contest contestants included the Plumlee brothers and Nolan “Showtime” Smith.
Although “Showtime” didn’t win, he lived up to his nickname and stole the show during his second dunk attempt. His plan started after the scrimmage when no one noticed him slipping back into the locker room, where he donned an old-school Johnny Dawkins #24 uniform. When it was time for his second dunk, Nolan stripped off his #2 Duke uniform to reveal the Dawkins uniform. The crowd erupted in cheers and smiles, with flash bulbs firing around Cameron.
Said Nolan about his retro Johnny Dawkins look, “I was watching some YouTube videos of some old dunk contests and seeing the creativity some of those pros have. After looking at that, I wanted to do something special for the night. It was the first CTC and I wanted to pull something special out. I know Coach Dawkins would have loved to be here for it and I wanted to pull out his jersey.”
The Nolan-turned-Johnny-Dawkins was perhaps the top moment of an event that the coaching staff felt brought the best atmosphere to Cameron at the start of the season in history. The players all definitely agreed it was the most fun they have had starting a hoops season.
“Countdown to Craziness was crazy, it was probably the best atmosphere I have seen since I have been here,” said Lance in the locker room afterwards. “I could see this night being the start of a great tradition for around this time each year.”
Added Christian, “It was wonderful, it brings back so many memories, of course I wanted to come. It’s just the best atmosphere to play college basketball.”
We have just started our second full week of practice, so the season is in full swing. We had an exciting first week!! From our Countdown to Craziness event, to an Open House with Player Autographing, and, finally, with our 1st Exhibition game vs Pfeiffer, our players and staff had a full schedule. The support we had from the fans for all of these events was amazing!! It made our whole team and staff that much more excited to get going with the season.
IN PICTURES - 
Hello Blue Devils fans! I wanted to highlight one of the most successful and popular community service programs in our athletic department — Read with the Blue Devils. The program, which was created eighteen years ago, strives to promote the importance of reading to elementary school students in Durham. Our student-athletes spend time sharing personal stories and answering questions before reading a book (as selected by the kids) to an entire class. There are currently 15 schools participating in the program and the list continues to grow.
