CAMERON WALK-UP LINE - Let me set the scene for you. I'm sitting here, on the sidewalk that only draws a line for the biggest game of the year, pretending like I'm not cold in 50-degree weather while reading Kafka by lamplight.
It's "The Castle," and it's a story about a protagonist named K., who regardless how hard he tries, can never enter the place he wants to get in most.
I'm sensing it's an omen of some kind.
I'm sitting out here because on Wednesday night, Duke plays host to North Carolina. It's the granddaddy of them all, a tradition unlike any other and the greatest rivalry in sports. It's two schools separated by just eight miles and a shade of blue and for this meeting, not a single game in the ACC standings.
It might be my favorite thing about games like Duke-UNC: The only thing higher than the decibel level in Cameron will be the number of clichés used to describe it.
The platitudes have already started, with players talking about how it's the kind of game they love to play in and the coaches calling it just another game.
It's not just another game.
There's a reason I'm sitting outside in February on a Monday night, and it isn't because Kafka has me on the edge of my seat-the novel ends mid-sentence.
I'm sitting outside because I'm a senior. As a senior, I'm told to worry about a lot of things. There's the economy, with its ever-worsening job market (but I hear the journalism industry is booming). There's global warming and its insidiously deleterious effects. And of course, there's the fact that problems with Duke Dining mean I may never get to experience Food Factory.
But for the last month, I've mostly worried about being a member of the first class in 24 years to graduate without witnessing a Blue Devils' victory over the Tar Heels in Cameron.
And believe me, the only thing I want to have in common with the Duke Class of 1985 is an unironic appreciation of Journey.
Devoted readers of my column (that's just a fancy way of referring to myself in the third-person) may remember that I'm the guy who said the regular season is meaningless for the Blue Devils. And I stand by that point.
But Wednesday night isn't the "regular" season (cliché alert!). It's Duke's chance to atone not only for its last two performances, but for three years of disappointing results when Carolina comes to Cameron.
More than that, though, it's the Blue Devils' first and best opportunity to prove to the nation that they aren't the team everyone saw last Wednesday, that their title hopes didn't perish in Death Valley and that it wasn't the start of an all-too-familiar late-winter swoon.
Because that Wednesday night, Duke's reputation plummeted faster than George Allen's, and that only took three syllables.
Championship contenders don't lose by 27 points, don't fail to break 50 points and usually, get this, move the ball beyond midcourt on a majority of their possessions.
And in the rare instances those things do happen, championship contenders don't come out playing just as badly in the next game.
The second half against Miami Saturday was a step forward, but not before the two steps back of the first half. Now the question is if the come-from-behind win over the Hurricanes was a season saver or just a temporary reprieve.
We'll get a good taste of Duke's answer this Wednesday. Carolina, after proudly adhering to the "regular season doesn't mean anything" philosophy in early-season losses to Boston College and at Wake Forest, is clicking on all cylinders and looking like the team many thought could go undefeated at the season's start.
The Blue Devils, meanwhile, have played one good half and three incompetent ones in their last two games. If Duke has any ideas of making a run at the ACC title and a Final Four, it has to stand toe-to-toe with the Tar Heels and show the nation it's capable both of slowing down a fast-paced team and of holding their own on the boards for 40 minutes.
If they don't, they may wind up like their literary doppelganger, locked out of April's promised land. And if that happens, I'll have to
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