Cameron gone Greek

Friday night was enough to make you regret not going greek, almost.

I wish I could tell you something about being in the student section of Cameron Indoor Stadium on Greek Night. Head coach Mike Krzyzewski called it one of the best atmospheres to start the season since he’s been here.

But as fraternity and sorority members filed into Cameron following the first 300 non-greek students in line, I waited. And waited. And finally I went to the Dillo because it became pretty obvious that they weren’t fitting the 150 people in front of me into the student section.

My point isn’t that Greek Night is a bad idea (it’s not) or that the new policy that lets large groups line up together doesn’t improve the basketball experience (it does). What I’d like to point out is that during all that K-ville and line policy discussion, the Blue Devil program was vocal about the fact that it believes the perception that games are hard to get into is unfair. And, well, the awkward reality is that at both Countdown to Craziness and the UNC-Greensboro game, not everyone who wanted to get in did.

It’s unrealistic to say that getting into a basketball game at Duke is something you can always walk up to minutes before tipoff (which makes the term “walk-up line” a bit ironic). When Friday’s game against the Spartans tipped off at 7 p.m., undergrads in the front of the line who claimed to have been waiting since 5:30 were still standing outside. As I momentarily stepped out of line to see how many students weren’t inside Cameron by game time, I saw the sidewalks were filled from the student entrance until the front of Wilson’s main entrance. Call it a rough estimate, but my guess is that there were at least 300 people who wanted to get into Cameron for the game who were still outside when Olek Czyz stepped onto the court for his first career start.

Head Line Monitor Zach White said in an interview that between 20 and 30 people were turned away from the game. Of course, we have different definitions of the idea of being “turned away”. Only between 20 and 30 people were denied entrance because earlier on, students towards the back of the line were given honest notice that it was unlikely they’d ever make it in. “Go check out the game on T.V.,” a line monitor offered as a condolence. By the time line monitors had turned away 20 to 30 people, many fans had already left K-ville.

This isn’t to say that the blame need be placed on White or the line monitors, who were simply doing their job managing the line. Instead, it’s the inherent problem associated with trying to fill the student section to absolute capacity without turning a single undergraduate away. It’s nearly impossible to have the exact number of students show up who fit in the stands. Too few students, and Krzyzewski (as he did last year) reminds everyone that he can sell seats near the floor in Cameron if students don’t completely fill them. A few too many students, and the program’s promise that games aren’t hard to get into becomes untrue.

Turning some students away is fine, and the Cameron Crazies shouldn’t take their section for granted. But I guess it’s all the empty seats that get me. Last night against Coastal Carolina, students didn’t come close to filling their section. And even when the undergrads do all show up, the less-than-full stadium is noticeable when you look across and see the at times sparse wine-and-cheese crowd that leisurely sits behind the benches.