The residents of “Mitchell-in Star Restaurant,” who are all seniors, have been tenting for three years. Blake Morris, who met his fellow tenters through Duke Wesleyan, ran through miscellaneous knowledge as he waited for the doors to this year’s ordering test to open at the K Center behind Cameron Indoor Stadium. A fun fact off the top of his head?
“Crawford Palmer is the only non-American Olympian to medal in the Olympics,” he said.
Henry Crawford Palmer won a silver medal in 2000, playing basketball for France. He is, indeed, the only non-American Blue Devil to medal in the Olympics.
Why is that relevant?
It’s the tenting test. You’ve got to know it all.
The ordering test, administered every year by the line monitors, is one of the many factors in determining the order that Black tents will enter Cameron Indoor Stadium on the fateful day of Duke’s home game against North Carolina (March 9). Black tents are the elite cadre of Cameron Crazies who have been braving the cold in their tents since Jan. 21; blue and white tents started camping out a week or three later.
To get their tents to the front of the line, Black-tent K-Ville residents can take part in “attendance events” — like women’s basketball games — the K-Ville “Walkathon,” poster competitions and tent-decorating contests. According to official K-Ville policy, test results carry roughly one-third of the weight when it comes time for lineup.
For junior Dillon Sant, captain of Tent G, success on the test is very important. He spent about 10 hours in the days leading up to the test studying and helping his team do the same, making a shared document to divide assignments.
“I'm projecting a top-three finish with the tests,” Sant said. “I think we're surely gonna be in the front row.”
The divide-and-conquer approach to studying is popular for the test, as the only thing K-Ville residents know entering the testing room is the subject: Duke basketball history. Sophomore Charlotte Caddell and junior Stephanie Minaya figured the best thing to do was divide history into increments of five years and assign them to tent members. Their tent, “Lightning McCain,” won the best name competition, which gives them a leg up when it comes to placement. This is helpful, because Caddell and Minaya agreed afterward that the test didn’t offer exactly what they had expected.
“We were expecting more history questions,” Caddell said after braving the exam. She wasn’t ready to deal with all the content on the current roster, like the name of the flower store that sponsors Ryan Young’s The Brotherhood Podcast.
She could, however, tell you all about Lyons Partnership v. Morris Costumes, Inc., a 2001 case in which former Duke star and current ESPN broadcaster Jay Bilas litigated copyright issues for the purple dinosaur costume on the children’s TV show “Barney & Friends.” Unfortunately for Caddell, there wasn’t a Bilas Barney question on the ordering test.
Sophomore Aaliyah Tucker of “The Devil Wears Proctor” tent had her facts on lock, too. She can tell you all about the day Mike Krzyzewski became the all-time leader in NCAA tournament games.
“It was the Mississippi State game, March 20, 2005,” she said. “He beat Dean Smith and he had 66 wins.”
But Tucker wasn’t sure what jersey colors the team wore at every one of their games this season so far, and that’s what came up on the test.
What appears on that fateful document is all up to the year’s line monitors, led this season by seniors Rachel Heis and Nick Tsintolas. The duo stand at the helm of the line monitor organization, notorious on campus for their blue and white windbreakers and affinity for megaphones.
Shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday, Heis and Tsintolas closed the door to the practice courts in the K Center. The most dedicated Cameron Crazies on campus crowded over hefty test papers, trying to remember what song Stanley Borden sang at Countdown to Craziness and who wore jersey No. 3 before Grayson Allen, Tre Jones and Jeremy Roach.
How would you do? Think you know ball?
Take a stab at this year’s tenting test.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.
Sophie Levenson is a Trinity junior and a sports managing editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.