When it comes to tenting and the somewhat incredible scene that has become January tradition on the walkways to Cameron Indoor Stadium, I generally consider myself to be a purist. Graces should be kept to a minimum, and the "hard-core" tenters should truly have to earn their right to stand in the front rows on game day.
But, like everyone else assembled at the midnight tent check Sunday night, even I was pleased to find out that we had the night off. The 12-hour grace came as a surprise and a welcome relief to several consecutive nights in a sleeping bag.
Most importantly, it meant that I could get one decent night's rest before the 14 hours that were devoted to driving to Charlottesville on Monday to cover the women's basketball game against Virginia.
If you missed the game, frankly, I'm not surprised. Most likely, if you're a big basketball fan, you were cooped up in a tent awaiting personal checks for tonight's men's game against Wake Forest. And that enthusiasm for the men's basketball season is fine, even commendable I suppose.
But it's really too bad that it came at the expense of the women's game against Virginia, because it was a critical game you all should have had the chance to see.
The game was on television, broadcast all over the South. Yet, unlike last Saturday's men's game against conference lightweight Georgia Tech, when you gathered with your friends in your dorm rooms or Sati's or wherever you like to watch Duke basketball, not more than a handful of you were watching Monday when the female Blue Devils solidified their place at the top of the ACC.
I watched it; I was there. It was a fantastic game, too. It was exciting, it was nailbiting, it was packed with emotion between two of the conference's elite programs. There were highs and lows for both teams, subplots and backdrops dating back to a game that ended up deciding last year's regular season ACC championship.
Without exaggeration, it was the most fun and the most tension I have experienced while covering a sporting event in my nearly nine-month tenure as sports editor.
And in the final seconds, the Duke women pulled through for what was one of their biggest-if not their biggest-victories of an 18-1 season, the most successful start in program history.
Part of the reason you didn't see this was that you had no opportunity to watch because the line monitors deemed that game not worthy of a tenting grace. Apparently there were other more suitable considerations for grace, namely the entirely unnecessary 12-hour grace last Sunday night and the upcoming broadcast of Survivor after the Super Bowl (yes, the "Super Bowl, Super Grace" mantra you have been hearing includes two hours post-Super Bowl so you can watch the first episode in the new season of CBS's primetime drama).
Yet, for me to rail exclusively on the line monitors would be unfair, perhaps even foolish.
I am not writing to knock the line monitors; they do an admirable job. The head line monitor is someone I respect not just for the job he does for Duke Student Government, but also for his contributions as an associate of mine at work and, much more significantly, a good friend. He has received more than his share of flak, late-night prank calls and derogatory emails when, for the most part, his policies have been right on.
Unfortunately, Monday night he was wrong.
What truly concerns me is not that the head line monitor does not value women's basketball. Rather, my concern is that grace was not given because the impression has been fostered that Duke students could care less about women's basketball. As I was told, dozens of emails flood in every day demanding grace for this, that and the other (sorority functions, this event, that event, yadda yadda yadda), but not one request came through asking for a grace to watch the women's basketball team.
The sad part is, we (collectively you, me, current students, employees, alumni) see ourselves as a basketball school, but the No. 4 women's team plays in front of a few thousand people at most, unless the promotions department opens the floodgates to local elementary schools. Say what you will, but basketball is basketball and last time I checked, it was being played as well by the women of Duke as anywhere else in the nation.
Someone told me yesterday that the Blue Devil women have won more games in the past four years than every program save Connecticut, Tennessee and Louisiana Tech, but I can assure you that far fewer people are seeing the games in Cameron than at those other places. Officially, attendance at women's home games eclipses 4,100 people (an overestimate to be sure), but even if that were true, it would still be less than half Cameron's capacity. UConn, on the other hand, draws more than 12,000 people to its games, while Tennessee has close to 15,000 fans on average.
You tell me, are the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the country really that more deserving of fans than the fourth-ranked Blue Devils? Do you really want to be known as a basketball school that is more concerned about who undercuts who for $1 million on a played-out television program than who comes out on top when the stakes involve one of this University's most successful athletic programs?
Word out on the street is grace will be given tomorrow from one hour prior to the 7 p.m. tipoff against North Carolina until half-hour after the game ends.
Never mind that there was no opportunity to watch Monday's game, that you had no chance to support the team during a two-hour span that proved it is every bit as good as its national ranking. Tomorrow night, you all have another chance.
Believe me, the Tar Heels will be out in full force, and the line monitors are leaving you basketball faithful more than ample time to drive down to Chapel Hill, purchase tickets, which cost next to nothing, and rush back for your tenting duties.
Unless, of course, the line monitors are right... and this isn't the basketball school it's cracked up to be.
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