The air was electric in Cameron Indoor Stadium over an hour before game time, and the Cameron Crazies were letting their opinions be known-they want high school senior Shaheen Holloway.
Holloway, one of the top point guard recruits in the nation, visited Cameron Indoor Stadium and Duke Sunday for the Blue Devils game against No. 16 UCLA. The clamoring for his affections was wide-spread and loud, as the Crazies chanted, "We want Holloway!"
Students had signs exhorting Holloway to sign a letter of intent with Duke. Nine students even spelled out his name and added an exclamation with painted letters on their bodies. The graduate students were not left out either, as the came equipped with paper signs reading, "Shaheen, we love you, man."
"[The chants for me] felt great, just really great," Holloway said. "I'd like to thank the crowd for that. You don't get that at a lot of places. So that was real nice of them to do."
Holloway had seen the Legends game on his official recruiting visit and was anxious to see how Cameron was during a real game. His reaction was obvious as he had a smile on his face for most of the day from his seat directly behind Blue Devil head coach Mike Krzyzewski.
"I like Cameron," Holloway said. "I wanted to come down for a game to see how it was. It's better than I expected. The crowd is beautiful. The atmosphere is nice, the people down here are nice, the fans-it's beautiful down here. I like it a lot."
Holloway still has not made a verbal commitment to any school, but he mentioned that Duke, California and Seton Hall were the schools he was still considering. He hopes to visit both California and Seton Hall in the coming weeks to make his final assessment.
Holloway will not make his decision until after his high school basketball season is over. His school, St. Patrick's in Elizabeth, N.J., won its county tournament on Saturday afternoon before Holloway flew down to Durham. St. Patrick's moves on to the state tournament now.
"I don't know what the deciding factors are going to be," Holloway said. "I'm really trying not to think about it right now. I'm just trying to concentrate on my season right now and trying to win a championship."
When the Blue Devils pulled ahead by 15 nearly midway through the second half, the crowd was in ecstasy and during the timeout began chanting for Holloway again. That happened again on numerous occasions down the stretch during timeouts, culminating with the crowd chanting to Holloway and the two other basketball recruits in attendance, "Come to Duke! Come to Duke!"
Any thoughts that the chants for potential recruits, rather than current Blue Devils, was bothering Duke dissipated after the game. The Blue Devils in the locker room were happy about the victory and the impact it may have had on recruiting.
"If I was a kid and I was at today's game, there's no way that I could turn Duke down," Price said. "We had some recruits in today, and I don't know what their feeling was, but when the crowd is chanting their name they had to feel pretty good.
"Recruiting is important, we need to carry on a tradition. Next year we're going to need some some bodies out there to play. [Chanting recruit's names during timeouts] doesn't bother me at all."
Holloway was impressed, too. He had no qualms that fitting into Duke's program would be a switch he is capable of making.
"I have a lot of confidence in my ability," Holloway said. "I feel I can come in right away and help the team, if I'm given a chance. I have no problems-I'm a team player, whatever it takes. If I don't play my first year that much because it's a learning experience, then I'll have to go on with it."
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