As a freshman this year, I had the opportunity to live in Tent Scheyer (#30) for more than two months, and I loved every bit of it. Sure it was cold, miserably so at times, but the sheer magnitude of what we were there for was unbelievable. There are no fans more devoted to their team than the Crazies. That being said, 10 of my 11 awesome tentmates were seniors this year, and although they were heartbroken after the loss, none of them had the gall to suggest that our players did not give enough and that they deserved better as fans. To do so is utterly appalling.
This year was, in no uncertain terms, a great year for Duke basketball. Duke bounced back from a very atypical Duke year to post a 28-6 mark, including a 13-3 mark in the conference ranked first in the RPI. And what's more amazing than that? We did it all without an All-American on our roster. Carolina has Hansbrough, UCLA has Love, Memphis has Douglas-Roberts and Rose and Kansas has Rush. Of teams playing in power conferences, Duke posted one of the best records of a team without an All-American. Even more impressively, we did it with only two upperclassmen contributing significant minutes. That is nothing to be ashamed of.
You can always tell who the fair weather fans are, because they'll stop supporting our team the second we lose. The idea that Crazies deserve to see a win, or that this season wasn't great smacks of sheer arrogance-we Crazies tent for the joy of seeing one of the greatest basketball games on earth and follow Duke basketball because we love the game and our players, not because we think it is our birthright as Duke fans to see a win.
So what? We slipped up in the round of 32 with a young team. To say that this season was anything less than great is not only a disservice to Coach K and our awesome players, but it reeks of the fair weather fanhood that has no place in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Daniel Simpson
Trinity '11
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