I opened up the car door after driving those formidable eight miles to Durham and looked up. Crisp white clouds hung in the air, in front of a bright Carolina Blue sky.
It was all downhill from there. I had been to Duke’s campus before, of course, but during that first visit my mentality was this: leave as soon as possible — a similar mentality to that of Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow, Tyus Jones, Jabari Parker and Austin Rivers.
On this March 5 day, though, I had to spend a few more hours than I normally would in order to cover the North Carolina-Duke game. “Just one of the many perils of sports writing,” I thought to myself before walking to Cameron Indoor Stadium.
On the way, the first student we passed proudly sported her gray Princeton hoody. The first building we came across was called Gross Hall. These are actual facts; I’m not creative enough to make any of this up (you can check my Twitter timeline for confirmation).
Anyway, I finally get to the basketball arena. If you’ve never seen it, just picture your high school gym except uglier and more gothic, surrounded by the remnants of drunk kids from New Jersey who have been camping out since the start of January to watch their team take a big, fat “L.”
If you need more detail to complete this image, just look at the second review that comes up when you search “Cameron Indoor Stadium” on Google Maps: “Stop hanging the basketball goals from the ceiling it looks stupid.”
That about sums it up.
Fast forward to game time, and I’m sitting courtside directly across the UNC bench, which is pretty cool. Right behind me, though, are the Cameron Cuckoos, which is pretty uncool.
Because now I get to be showered with flakes of blue paint, elbowed in the head and spit on as some girl screams for Grayson Allen — you know, the one who finished the regular season with 666 points — to marry her. If he winds up saying yes, congratulations, be careful not to trip as you walk down the aisle.
