Team Starts New Tradition with Tent 1 Pitched in K-Ville for Players

PHOTOS: Tent 1

This year’s occupants of Tent 1 didn’t spend a single night in K-Ville and have never worn a blue wig in Cameron during a game.  But, like the Crazies residing in all the other tents, they did invest significantly in the team and played a most significant role in the 82-50 win over UNC.  In the start of a new tradition, Tent 1 was reserved this year for the Blue Devil players.

The tent, pictured below and called the “Board Room”, was located near the Krzyzewskiville sign in K-Ville.  With an 82-inch ceiling and 96 square feet of floor area, the tent could fit eight people comfortably (and every player except Zoubs, the Plumlees and Ryan could stand upright without touching his head on the roof).

The tent featured several amenities so the players could have some fun in K-Ville with their teammates and the Crazies, including a card table and several decks of cards, eight Nerf guns, lawn bowling, a Nerf basketball hoop, a Duke blue carpet and Blue Devil welcome mat, poker chips and a pop-a-shot (setup just outside the tent).  By the time gameday vs. UNC arrived, the floor was littered with foam bullets, suggesting the Nerf guns were the biggest hit.

Our players stopped by the tent fairly often since the tent was set up several weeks ago, often swinging by after practice or on their way to the gym.  Said Nolan after the UNC game, “The players’ tent was tremendous.  I am not sure if we took it down yet but I wanted to stay in there tonight.  The tent was a great idea and I enjoyed my time playing cards, shooting the Nerf darts and shooting hoops right beside it…  We just want to give back to our fans, our Sixth Man.  They were tremendous tonight, this is what they slept out for.  They were fired up.  To show them we appreciate and love them is what we want to do.”

Crazies Kick Off White Tenting with Race to Secret Location

The next round of tenting season for the Crazies (White Tenting) kicked off tonight at 9 PM as the K-Ville population continues to grow in advance of our March 6th rivalry game against UNC.  Since a number of tent groups are pitching their respective tents on the same day, the Crazies race to a secret spot to determine tent order.  That spot is revealed here on DukeBluePlanet.com by guard Nolan Smith…

Contest results and Coach K reveals grand-prize winner

Thanks again to everyone who entered our Ultimate Crazies Contest contest… We appreciate the time and effort that was invested and definitely enjoyed checking out all the essays, photos, videos and even some songs!  If you thought winning on the road was tough, try judging this contest!  It took us awhile, but finally here are the results with the prize won in parenthesis.

Winner (2 tickets to UNC game, behind-the-scenes tour)…

Runner-Up (2 tickets to future ACC game & behind-the-scenes tour): John Tazbir

Final Four (Wins signed team poster and one year BP magazine subscription): Dan Creeden, Angela Leeder, Jackson Markham, Kellner Pruett

Sweet 16 (Wins Nike Duke tee-shirt): Sean Ireton, Melanie Dutton, Kevin Higley, Lindsey Barnes, Ryan Newcomb, Katherine Allison, Crystal Tao, Elissa Marks, Matthew Childers, Steve Holtz, Andy Gambill, Brittany Cook, Hannah Ellison, Jennie Chan, Holly Ricketts

NOTE TO THE WINNERS: We will get in touch with you via email in the next seven days to get the appropriate information needed for prize distribution…

Contest Recap

It’s the No. 2 toughest ticket in American sports.

Duke students camp out for weeks (in all weather conditions) for the opportunity to play a part in one of sports’ greatest spectacles.

It’s Senior Night.

It’s the greatest rivalry in college athletics.

It takes place in the best basketball venue in the world (according to Sports Illustrated, and probably these supportive Blue Devils too).

At charity auctions, two tickets have been sold for as much as $40,000.

It’s the first-ever DBP Ultimate Crazie Contest, and we offered up two tickets for this year’s Duke/UNC game to the passionate and dedicated Duke fan we can find.

Before we officially opened the contest, we invited fans to help us decide how the contest should go down via our polls on DukeBluePlanet.com.  Fans decided on an essay/photo/media contest, with a behind-the-scenes tour also given to the winner.   The contest was open to everyone (by everyone we mean Duke fans all over the USA and the world – Tar Heel fans could not apply).

Instructions to enter the contest were as follows:

1. Express what Duke/Duke Basketball means to you using words/photos/media (Be creative!).

2. Email your name/contest entry to Dave Bradley at db@dukeblueplanet.com by January 27th

3. Check back about February 11th as we announce the winner on DukeBluePlanet.com and our Twitter page

If you are a diehard Duke fan who has dreamed of witnessing Duke battle UNC in Cameron… This one was for you!

At stake… Tickets to observe first-hand the most fun and intense game in all of sports… Plus a few other perks and prizes.

Hoops teammates in Wisconsin use YouTube to put their own stamp on Crazie

Lisa Lawrence and Caitlin Staniec, teammates at Cardinal Stritch University, are diehard, Crazie Duke fans.  How Crazie?  The pair was so excited about the chance to watch Duke play live for the first time at our January 6th game in Chicago, they decided to produce a new Duke-themed video for each of the 30 days before the game.  The pair used YouTube and Twitter to spread the word and ended up with an impressive following.  I caught up with Lisa and Caitlin to discuss their videos and what makes them so Crazie about Duke.

DB: How did you guys become Duke fans to begin with?

LISA: When I was nine or 10, I started watching with my sister and the next year they won the national championship. Being a basketball player I probably had an extra appreciation for what makes Duke so unique so I would ask, “Why wouldn’t you want to be a Duke fan?”

CAITLIN: When I was little my favorite color was blue and so Duke’s uniform really caught my attention. Then I looked a little closer at the program and realized there was a lot to like! Every kid has to have a team and mine was Duke.

LISA: There’s just something about Duke that draws you to it, starting with Coach K — Greatest coach ever.

CAITLIN: When you are 10 years old, you see Coach K on TV a lot but you don’t understand why he’s such a big deal. Then as you get older and you watch his teams and what they do, you really respect the program. And all the games are on TV so the team is really accessible, you have the ESPN mobile updates, everything you guys do on DukeBluePlanet now. It is a team that is both fun and rewarding to follow.

DB: How and why did you come up with the idea to make 30 videos in 30 days?

LISA: We did it to see if we could get people at Duke to look at them and see they have some big fans in Wisconsin. The 30 Days of Duke video concept came from ABC Family’s 25 Days Until Christmas.

CAITLIN: As far as the name goes, we thought “30 Days of Duke” rolled off the tongue nicely. Our first video took four hours to make so then we showed our friends and watched every video on DukeBluePlanet. They were laughing with us even though they aren’t Duke fans. And we were on winter break on campus with our team so we had a lot of free time.

DB: Which video was your favorite?

CAITLIN: Definitely the video we made for Day 30, Tik Tok (Duke). It was a lot of fun, we Auto-Tuned my voice to make it sound decent and we basically made a music video.

LISA: The 12 Days of Christmas one was fun too. We did a lot of research for that one and now I feel I can drop a bunch of facts about the team and really know the history.

DB: What was the biggest surprise during the 30 days?

CAITLIN: A package from Dave Bradley.

LISA: Yeah, it was amazing to get recognized by the team.

DB: Thanks for the shout-out! I’ve seen some of your teammates in the videos. What was their reaction to the whole thing?

CAITLIN: At first they thought it was a joke, and no one would watch the videos. Then, our first video got 200 views overnight and they were surprised.

LISA: I think they were surprised it turned into something. It really could have been nothing. After awhile, they even started helping us brainstorm ideas.

CAITLIN: Some of them are UNC fans and even they decided it was cool we were doing it and helped us.

LISA: It ended up bringing the team closer. Team bonding.

DB: How much time did you guys devote to the 30 Days of Duke videos?

LISA: It depended on the video. Jingle Bells took more like 30 seconds, while 12 Days of Christmas took like two hours.

CAITLIN: Every video was well-planned with scripts. We never rushed anything and we had to practice, do our walk-throughs.

LISA: Probably 30 hours all together.

DB: How did you come up with ideas for 30 different videos?

LISA: It helped that it was around Christmas time so we could make Duke-themed holiday jingles. Also it helped you guys had games so we could take about what was going on with the team.

CAITLIN: We thought it was going to be really hard at first, but even after 30 days we still have ideas we haven’t used.

DB: Best moment of the 30DOD?

LISA & CAITLIN: The game.

DB: What does it mean to you to be a Duke fan? What does it take in your opinion?

LISA: The Crazies at their best are completely random and extremely passionate. We wanted to put our own spin on that.

CAITLIN: Yeah and you always have to be supportive and loyal. Win or lose, you have to wear your Duke gear and support the team. And you have to know all your facts to shut down the Duke haters out there. True Duke fans are strong, loyal, passionate, and Crazie.

DB: What’s next for the 30 Days of Duke Girls?

CAITLIN: We decided we will make a few more videos, just not every day, and continue to update our Twitter.

LISA: I am sad it ended. I went to sleep dreaming about ideas for the next video.

CAITLIN: She did. One time she texted me at 3 AM and said she was thinking about Duke videos.

DB: I respect that. This has been a good talk and thanks for all your amazing support!

To watch the 30 Days of Duke videos: www.youtube.com/30DaysofDuke

Lisa (left) and Caitlin (right) after the win over the Cyclones in Chicago

Crazies Dash to the Spot to Improve Tent Number

With blue tenting starting today, several hundred Crazies are expected to pitch their tents and begin the five-week countdown to the UNC game.  In order to determine tent numbers (the lower the number, the closer you will be to the court), the Crazies will compete in a trivia contest, a “research” contest on our remaining opponents, and a race to a secret spot.  For the latter competition, Coach K reveals the spot below…NOW HURRY THERE!