Terps and Blue Devils resume rivalry

The wait is finally over.

     With the first game for which students could organize a tent coming at the relatively late date of February 22, the Cameron Crazies are certainly excited to finally get the seats with which their long wait has rewarded them.

     But are the Crazies as excited for this year's Maryland game with the Terrapins (13-9) sitting in third-to-last place in the ACC with a 4-7 record?

     "No. I can't get as excited for a [4-7 team in the ACC] that's not our rivals," said Pasha Majdi, who is in tent No. 1, a group that has been in Krzyzewskiville since Dec. 28, 2003. "I'm not looking forward to taunting Steve Blake [like last year]. I'm still excited, but not like I will be for UNC."

     While the Maryland team is no longer animating the Cameron Crazies in the same manner the Terrapins did in recent years, the men's basketball team's recent back-to-back losses to N.C. State and Wake Forest, respectively, has fans desperate to help.

     "I think it will be important for the crowd to psyche the team up that much more after its two losses," said sophomore Matt Mullane, who is in tent No. 45.

     While certainly the game will be decided by the players on the court, the 2004 game is as much about the fans as the athletes.

     Maryland head coach Gary Williams admonished his school's fans after the Duke game in College Park, but also said his school was not the only place that needed reform.

     "You've got to understand: [Vulgar cheers are] rampant throughout the country right now," Williams said to the Washington Post. "But because we're in Washington, D.C., we seem to get more attention than other places."

     Many at Duke are concerned that the Cameron Crazies will be compared to their Maryland counterparts, especially after a student's editorial in The Chronicle advocated the taunting of D.J. Strawberry for his relation to his father, Darryl Strawberry. The elder Strawberry had a much-publicized drug addiction problem throughout his Major League Baseball Career.

     With all the expectation for loud chants, Wine feels silence would be the most effective crowd response to Strawberry, who is averaging only 5.7 points per game.

     "I think what would really make a statement is if we just ignored him and said, 'You're not that important,'" Wine said.

Who the Blue Devils (21-3, 10-2) will have to worry about are John Gilchrist, Nik Caner-Medley and Jamar Smith, all of whom average over 12 points per game. With a two-game losing streak, Duke looks to regroup against the scrappy Terrapins, but Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski still is more concerned about how hard his team works rather than the results of its games.

     "If we play this hard then I will be happy with the team," Krzyzewski said. "I don't measure my team by their record, I measure them by their performance."