A group of Duke students from the Mirecourt House decided over a game of quarters that they wanted to get a jump on securing seats to see their archrival, the UNC Tar Heels.
A group of ROTC cadets pitched tents next to the stadium for four days before the Duke victory. Mike Krzyzewski brought pizzas to the Duke devotees as they camped.
The most famous village in college basketball was born when one of them scribbled "Krzyzewskiville" onto a piece of cardboard and taped it to a post.
The Heels will be back in Cameron on Saturday after 36 years. Coach K will not be on the court for the final time. This year's edition of pre-Carolina was more than a few tents on a lawn. There were 70 staked into the grass for 32 days.
How does it work? How bad does everyone smell? A camera was sent into the nylon to find out.
After the blue tenting test, which covered every facet of Duke hoops, the encampment began on January 23, covering everything from the history of the UNC rivalry to the life of Coach K. The highest scoring tents earned spots on the lawn.
When the COVID-19 omicron variant surged during the holidays, it forced Duke to delay in-person classes until January 18 and students feared K-Ville would be shut down for the second year in a row. Limits were placed on in-tent living. Teams were allowed six, instead of 10. The number of daylight campers remained the same.
K-Ville residents do not fear the elements after nearly four decades of hoops season. If there is two more inches of snow or if winds top 35 mph, the university will not allow residents to stay out. "My parents are like, really?" says senior econ major Cam Polo of Philadelphia. We are paying a lot of money for a dorm room and you are in a tent in the cold?
The members of the team titled "Dumblemoore's Army" are leaping into the sunlight, beckoned by the blow of a horn that signifies a tent check. Camden Nelson, a senior pre-med student, says that those checks are held randomly and around the clock.
The check horn is a bell. All K-Ville residents have to present their student IDs to the line monitors, such as the one seen here, when it blares. If a team doesn't have the required number of members on site, they get one miss and have to give up their spot on the waiting list.
There were four home games played this year, including the contest for which you see these K-Ville residents pregaming, the 88-70 win over Florida State. Our last game as seniors. Our last place of residence was Krzyzewskiville. It is all very real now.
It is no secret that students like body paint, but what student is doing could lead to better seats for the Carolina game. K-Ville residents accumulate bonus points through a series of contests, including body painting, and attend Duke sporting events. Those points can lead to a better spot in line when the doors open on Saturday afternoon.
The line monitors at the FSU game are not just here to be K-Ville police and wake-up alarms. They manage the walk-up crowds for every home game. The application process is like tenting itself, hyper-competitive with a small number of spots to fill, and there is even a test. Prior tenting experience is required, and all applicants must be prepared to have a discussion worthy of the Duke Divinity School.
Why is this so complicated? The official answer is that Duke University has 6,800 undergraduate students and that the Cameron Indoor has a 1,200-seat student section. The unofficial answer is that only Duke students would take a test to watch basketball and then come up with a camping process. What can I say? We are seen as a stereotype. I love it.
There are selfies and haircuts. Study groups and singalongs. K-Ville residents always have a sense of community, but that was especially true this season. The senior class of 2020 had their first UNC tenting experience on March 5, days before the outbreak of the swine flue. Camden Nelson said that they were going to have a bond regardless, because they all love Duke. The last time all of us were here was a week before the world got turned upside down.
Those with FSU tickets but not a spot on the lawn looked into Krzyzewskiville with admitted tent envy but didn't let that deflate their excitement. Jake Jeffries led the efforts of wall climbing. The underclassmen are looking forward to the UNC game. Polo says that the game takes place in February in odd-numbered years.
The biggest challenge for K-Ville residents is finding food. Group text chains become a defacto Door Dash, as those who are holding down the tent for the team place their orders at dining halls, Durham eateries and a flotilla of food trucks, while relying on tentmates to do the delivery. Pizza is the staple because this is still college. There was a Mike's pie to honor Krzyzewski's first delivery. There was a steady stream of Coach K-themed stuff, from T-shirts to coffee mugs.
Every team works in a rotation, a process that can get a little complicated when you consider the typical college student schedule, let alone so many seniors applying to law and med schools. Positive tests popped up throughout January because of the omicron variant. Most tenters averaged about a dozen nights under the cold winter sky.
The final personal check was taken late on the night of Feb. 25, one week before Coach K's final game. Every member of the team had to check in with the line monitors. Sam Freder said that it was not a problem. It is in the name. The CAMERON crazies.
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