I don't like Krzyzewskiville. There, I said it. Go ahead, Cameron Crazies. Wiggle those spirit fingers at me.
But before you break into jeering me with your "Go To Hell, Carolina" chant, hear me out. While I may not like those fanatical diehards who camp out for two nights for a non-conference game in November and force me to wait in line for hours more than I should, I am not cold-hearted enough to ignore the tradition of K-ville.
The new validation policy, enacted this season, is a blessing for haters like me. By simply setting up a Google reminder to click two buttons at midnight of a given evening, I can guarantee myself a seat in all but three home games this year. The system works out perfectly for students who don't want to jump up and down for 40 minutes from the upper corner of wooden bleachers but still want to watch basketball games-and yes, there is such a breed.
And even though the validation policy is the best thing that has happened to me since Bo Ryan recorded his Soulja Boy video, I respect history enough to acknowledge that it completely violates the spirit and charm of Krzyzewskiville and needs to be amended before the ACC season. Quite simply, there's no reason for a new validation policy this year. Cameron Indoor Stadium is going to fill itself.
The line monitors say that student attendance has been on the decline for five years-a statistic of which I'm still suspicious, considering it was only two years ago that Duke was No. 1 in the polls and J.J. Redick was breaking Duke records-but this policy was a direct reaction to last year's dipping crowds. Why was student attendance down last season? Not only because Duke had its worst team since 1996, but because the Blue Devils featured a boring offense-a poorly executed three-man-weave in the halfcourt that was slower than a stall.
If you watched Duke rout Wisconsin last night, you know that boring is certainly not the word to describe this year's team. In fact, there is a strong possibility that the Blue Devils will be undefeated when they open conference play at home against Virginia Jan. 13. Validation or no validation, the student section is going to be jam-packed as long as Duke continues to employ a fast-paced offense and Gerald Henderson continues to drop freakishly athletic dunks.
Head Line Monitor Roberto Bazzani told me Monday, when 16 groups were already registered for Tuesday's 9 p.m. tip, that the point of validation was to consistently fill Cameron in an era of declining student attendance. If there were, say, 300 validation spots left over the day before any given game, those seats could be given to local charities. Given this logic, the television section would always be full.
Except there's a major flaw with that argument.
Every validation spot has been filled for every game so far, and, with the exception of Wisconsin, Duke's home competition has been softer than Taylor King's shooting touch. If a weekday game against New Mexico St. gobbled validation spots, why will there be leftovers for a game against any ACC opponent? And if there were leftover spots more than 24 hours before the game, why wouldn't any student snap one up, just in case he happened to finish that problem set?
So when Bazzani said he was open to suggestions to improve the policy, I decided to offer my solution, which incorporates the tenets of K-ville and the validation plan.
Right now, when validated students register their groups in line, the online "Validation Counter" is updated immediately. Any student can check how many people who validated are in line-which dictates how many people in the walkup line will be allowed into the game. This technology is new; the K-ville Web site still displays a Crazies Counter for when students swipe their DukeCards to enter Cameron, but counting how many people have registered groups is innovative.
With this program, then, why is validation necessary?
Here's my proposal: Swipe the DukeCards of registered students and update a real-time counter online to inform the student body how many spots are currently taken in Cameron. With this year's team, chances are Cameron is going to fill up-as it did last night for this year's best non-conference home game and as it should for every ACC game. But if there are still 300 spots left two hours before tip, students will see that and wander over to a basketball game they know they can get into. Easy as beating Wisconsin.
Part of the allure of K-ville-admittedly, a charm that I reject but appreciate nonetheless-is the idea that those who wait the longest are guaranteed a spot. The validation policy overrides this principle. Yes, the students who will attend every game but the tenting ones will be those that wait the longest, but they will also be those who merely took a study break at 12 a.m. to click two links and got back to the books.
Eliminating validation may hinder my ability to wander into every basketball game, but the only guarantee in this matter should be the section of the student's seat.
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