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!
Latest from the student section and Crazies lend a hand to Rowdies
Hey Duke Fans!
I hope you are as pumped about our team as I am. The guys are looking great. Jon is playing absolutely lights-out. He is clearly one of the very best players in the country. Kyle and Lance have been showing a lot of determination, and it is very encouraging to have players that fight game-in and game-out as hard as they do. Nolan has learned to use his speed to tear apart the opponent’s defense. Watching his progression reminded me of how last year a light-bulb seemed to go off in Gerald’s head that said, “Wow, I’m faster and more athletic than my opponents.” Nolan has figured out just how fast and talented he is, and he is looking great. The player I’m most excited about right now, though, is Zoubs. He is an enormous defensive presence, and is altering the offensive plan of our opposition, as we could see in the game against Gonzaga. His statistics don’t even remotely show what a positive impact he is on our team.
The games have been awesome in Cameron. The Crazies really did our research for Radford. We had plenty of inside information on their players, and came prepared with some pretty funny statistics about Radford University. I was particularly impressed with the crowd for St. John’s. Coach Krzyzewski gave the Crazies some encouraging fist pumps as he walked onto the floor, and that really got us going. We were intense and loud. Red Storm guard Malik Boothe also now has a full understanding that he is, “not tall enough to ride the rollercoaster.” The Gardner-Webb game was lighter on student attendance, due to winter break, but the fans who were there made up for it. There were an abundance of signs, ranging from “Excuse me, Mr. Defender, you forgot about Dre” to “Hey Deon, don’t miss it” (yeah… we went there).
Here are a few of the nicknames the Crazies have been working on for our players…
Nolan Smith- Showtime, Mr. Buckets, NdotSmitty
Brian Zoubek- Zoubs, Treebeard
Andre Dawkins- An-trey Dawkins, Dr. Dre, Andre 3000, Andre the Giant
Mason Plumlee- Hammer-time
Miles Plumlee- Mad-dogg
Kyle Singler- Wonderboy, The Most Interesting Man in the World
Ryan Kelly- Machine Gun Kelly
Lance Thomas- LT
Jon Scheyer- The Scheyer-man
Last week I got a phone call from the Assistant Principal of Kearney High School, in Nebraska. He explained to me that Kearney has an awesome student section at their basketball games, known for being loud, organized, and inspirational to their team. The fans call themselves the Rowdies and were hoping to get some tips from the Cameron Crazies, the best fans in the country.
The next day I had a conference call with eight of the Rowdy leaders, who were prepping for an upcoming game against their rivals. Here are a few tips I gave to them.
1) ALWAYS be loud. Winning or losing, before the game, or in the last 30 seconds, no one in the arena should ever, ever forget that this is “Our House!”
2) Cheers should be short and sweet. If things get too complicated, the cheer will die out. When a chant only has a few words, it allows every fan to know exactly what to say, and enables them to place emphasis on each individual syllable.
3) Be witty. By using rhymes or play-on-words, cheers will be more catchy and more funny.
4) Be spontaneous. Cheers can’t always be thought up ahead of time. You never know when an opposing player will have really bad hair and you need to start a “Lather! Rinse! Repeat!” chant (just ask the power forward from Gardner-Webb). Giant white boards can be helpful to get the word out for these spur of the moment cheers.
5) Be random. If the opposition is on the free throw line, the goal is to have them wondering “why the heck are they doing that?” Singing Miley Cyrus can be effective, as can chanting one of their teacher’s names. This is the ultimate form of distraction, as they place their attention on what the fans are doing, rather than on making their free throw.
At the end of the phone call the students of Kearney High School said the Crazies were now honorary members of the Rowdies. I think it’s fair to say that the Rowdies certainly are honorary Cameron Crazies too!
Have a Crazie holiday season!
Zach
Crazie Ambassadors On Campus Friday with Bucket, Prizes
Duke students making the typical and popular walk today from West Campus to the Bryan Center (student union) were likely surprised to see fellow students heaving half-court length shots at a basket and attempting three-pointers on the plaza. Our Crazie Ambassdor group had a bucket set up, inviting passerbys to take a jumper to win free prizes and reminding everyone of our big game Saturday against St. John’s (3:30 PM – Cameron – Be there!).
Students who connected from way downtown — half-court distance — won the chance to watch tomorrow’s game from the front row with the Crazies. We saw all kinds of shot strategies on the long-range attempt, including the shotput, QB toss Thad Lewis style, kicked ball, stair hop jumper, granny style between the legs, submarine heave, running jumper, and more! There was also a shot from three-point distance with media guides, tee-shirts, Duke sandals, and Duke towels available as prizes for makes. Congrats to Mike Ross, Charles Lee, Chris Li and Osagie Obanor for making the half-court heave and thanks to everyone who tossed up a jump shot!
Our Crazie blogger Zach White provides the latest update from the student section
Hey Duke Fans!
Well it’s been a busy few weeks since I’ve last written. Our boys have played four more games, three of them have been in the last week… and needless to say I have completely lost my voice.
There have been several themed games, including Freshman Night, Greek Night, and Club Sports Night. These have contributed to a PACKED Cameron Indoor Stadium, with extremely rowdy crowds. Fans have been loud, creative, and supportive. The coaching staff has offered seats directly behind the bench to the Crazie with the best sign at every game. I’ve seen some pretty good ones, including some girls having “Single ladies for Singler,” and “Nolan: be my date to our Crush Party!”
I’ve had my fun in Cameron these last few games. During pregame warm-ups, a Findlay player promised me that if I “friended him” on Facebook, he would accept. Strangely enough, he hasn’t responded to my friend-request yet. During the Charlotte game I attempted to make small-talk with a ref before the game. I introduced myself, and the gentleman gave me a fist-pound, but declined to let me know his name. Naturally, within the next few minutes I changed into my referee uniform which I happened to have on hand. During the game, the Crazies assured our new friend (after several calls that went towards our opposition), that if he needed a break, I would be happy to take over.
It appears as though we have some future Crazies on the way, too! Coach K’s grandson, Joey, had his 10th birthday party at the UNCG game. If you think 13 ten year olds can’t be intimidating… think again.
There is an increasing buzz around campus about our team. Here’s what I’m hearing:
-Scheyer and Singler are comforting to have on the floor. Not only are they explosive scorers, but they both make every player around them better.
-Lance has stepped up as a clear team leader, and his strong defense is going to be a huge tool for us especially in the rigorous ACC play.
-Miles has progressed tremendously over the offseason. And wow, he sure knows how to throw down some nasty dunks.
-It was devastating to lose Mason due to his wrist injury. Hopefully he can return as good as ever.
-Nolan’s silliness is second only to his performance in the Charlotte game. He came back with an intensity level that I haven’t seen since Gerald tore apart Maryland last year.
-It has become completely acceptable to refer to any Duke student who has a beard as “Little Zoubek.”
-Olek has played great and has kept us all very “entertained.”
We play Radford tomorrow. The Crazies will surely come up big, and hopefully over Thanksgiving break I will recover my voice, only so I can lose it again vs St John’s.
Zach
