Students are asking themselves how worthy their floundering Tobacco Road rivals are of Duke benches as Duke Student Government wages a campaign to discourage a bonfire after Thursday night's men's basketball game against the Tar Heels.
In a Jan. 24 e-mail addressed to the entire student body, DSG President C.J. Walsh and Head Line Monitor Greg Skidmore declared, "the Heels ain't worth a bench, they ain't worth a bonfire, hell they ain't worth S---!"
The e-mail requested that students save benches if Duke wins its game at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Duke, with 17 wins and one loss this season, has stayed on top of the national polls, while the Tar Heels have slipped from their former glory, winning just five of 16 games.
Skidmore, a senior, said the permit for the bonfire has not been revoked. "Normal precautions will be in place," he said. "Last year, we had a bonfire after the away game--that game propelled us to the national championship. Bonfires should be saved for very special wins. If we do anything, we will bring out three pieces of firewood and have one person dance around it; that's what this game warrants."
Many residence halls are currently without benches, one factor that Walsh said led him to discourage a bonfire.
"Why waste the benches? We need benches for more games, so we're going to save them, and if there's a bigger game down the road, we can burn them then," Walsh said. Walsh encouraged students to build more benches until then.
Several groups were quick to construct new benches following the Jan. 17 bonfire after Duke defeated the University of Maryland, but others, such as the residents of House P, spent that evening protecting their bench.
"I would rather they not burn benches, because it takes away a lot if they do it too much," said junior Ginny Stone, president of House P. "I would prefer if they save it until the UNC home game. I don't think anyone is upset about [the e-mail]."
Junior Kelly Eagen agreed. "We had a good bonfire last week. To have another so soon might be anticlimactic," she said.
Although many students did not deem the Tar Heels worthy of their benches, a few said that because the game is against Duke's biggest rival, it merits a bonfire.
"I feel like we shouldn't have had a bonfire for Maryland. At the game, we were even chanting OWe're not rivals!'" said sophomore Hany Elmariah. "Just the rivalry with Carolina deserves it."
Skidmore said he did not think the decision would affect attendance of the March 3 home game, for which, he said, there is understood support for a bonfire. "Even if it is just another ACC game, for the Duke players, UNC players and the fans, it will be anything but just another game," he said.
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