CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Fans have had a huge impact in the ACC this season. Road wins are as rare as they have ever been in 2003, as it seems the color of the crowds' shirts is the only consistent factor that separates victory from defeat in this hyper competitive conference.
Going into Saturday's game against Duke, Virginia fans should have been as proud as any in the country. Their team was undefeated inside of University Hall. Couple that with the Cavaliers win over the Blue Devils in Virginia the past two seasons and a Duke team coming into the game with four consecutive road losses, and the crowd could almost expect a victory over one of the nation's most celebrated college basketball programs.
But just before tip-off at 9 p.m., the Virginia faithful behaved in one of the most disrespectful manners possible at a sporting event. Unlike other actions by fans that have been criticized this season, the Wahoos--as they certainly deserve to be called-did nothing to offend the fans of a rival school. They instead offended the United States of America.
As the color guard and an a cappella group walked on the court to sing the national anthem, the crowd and teams stood up to pay respects to the flag. In the first patriotic gaffe of the night, the group began to sing before the ROTC students correctly positioned the flag. The mistake did not appear to have any negative intentions, so it passed without much notice.
Next, at the part of the song's lyrics that read "whose broad stripes," the entire crowd traditionally blurted out "Hoos"--an obvious play-on-words for Virginia's unofficial nickname, the Wahoos.
That alone is not enough to cause a problem. As Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski pointed out, "our students do the 'O' and I don't think it's a bad thing as long as it's done out of respect."
As the song continued, however, one fan randomly screamed "Hoos" again and again, and the crowd responded to this with laughter. Even the group singing the anthem seemed to get a kick out of it.
This heckler had less articulate imitators as well, as inaudible screams were heard from several areas of the gym followed by laughter from the respective section.
"We're in a position where we might go to war," Virginia head coach Pete Gillen said. "I understand people are drinking and having a good time, but we can't have [people being disrespectful during the national anthem]."
Just as the positive mood has helped the Cavaliers dominate at home, the negative mood Saturday was followed by Virginia faltering against Duke.
"We might have assumed that we played them well down in Durham. We're playing at home-10-0 whatever our record was," Virginia head coach Pete Gillen said. "We thought things would be easier. They stunned us, and we never recovered."
Duke, understanding that nothing is easy on the road after four straight losses away from home, jumped on the relaxed Cavaliers to score the first six points of the game on layups.
The Blue Devils went on runs of 10-0 and 19-4 later in the half as they built a 17-point lead by intermission.
Even Duke's bench was more prepared than any of the Cavaliers, as Daniel Ewing scored 10 points in the opening half as a reserve.
The readiness was all the more surprising because Duke was coming off a double overtime loss two nights before.
"I thought we were full of life right from the beginning," Krzyzewski said. "I think you credit players fully for something like that. The leadership of this team helped in that regard."
The crowd tried to help its team by exaggerating the meaningless baskets and cheering wildly. Virginia, however, was unable to cut the lead to less than 13.
"We just couldn't score," Gillen said. "We usually do a better job of pump-faking and using the rim as protection."
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