Duke's will participate in the finals of the "O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic" tonight. But what does the name actually mean?
The "O'Reilly Auto Parts" aspect of the name is quite clear, because what would a preseason tournament be without a conspicuous sponsorship? But the "CBE" actually means something, as Chronicle photographer Michael Naclerio and I found out while "exploring" Kansas City today (and by exploring we mean walking a square-block radius around the Sprint Center).
The CBE stands for the College Basketball Experience, an interactive museum located adjacent to the Sprint Center that includes the College Basketball Hall of Fame. As one enters the building a billboard warns: "This is not a museum. YOU WILL SWEAT."
I scoffed at first, but what made the CBE such an "experience" was that I actually did sweat.
In fact, a majority of my hour or so at the CBE was not spent watching videos or looking at exhibits, but rather actually shooting basketballs on real hoops. Yes, there were "educational" exhibits and such, which were interesting in themselves, especially given the plethora of Duke-related memorabilia (both Mike Krzyzewski and Christian Laettner are members of the Hall of Fame). But there were also free throw shooting stations, passing competitions, a full basketball court and stations to measure your vertical leap, height, and even shoe size in comparison to past greats of the college hardcourt.
Many of these stations involved a scorekeeping mechanism. So naturally, Naclerio and I turned our visit to the CBE into a writer versus photographer competition.
Now as my friends will tell you, my shot is, lets say, the "least developed" aspect of my basketball game. I fashion myself a pass-first point guard on the best of days, and just simply not a great player on the worst. Naclerio, on the other hand, had very little basketball playing experience. So this was not going to be a display of basketball prowess, to say the least.
And indeed, the photographer took an early lead in the shooting competitions, besting me in both the free-throw shooting and distracted free-throw shooting competitions. After two of my "last second shots" rimmed out while Naclerio's fell through (another common aspect of my basketball game as my friends will attest to), the photographer was up 3-0.
But in a comeback worthy of Laettner himself, I reeled off three straight victories to end the competition a draw. I first took gold in the dunking competition by dunking on a higher height rim than my competitor. And after besting Naclerio once again in the passing competition, I was down only one.
It came down, ironically, to a competition involving no athletic ability—a game of NCAA Basketball 09 on the Xbox. I may have had an unfair advantage in this event having played the game before, but I still held off Naclerio to tie our battle royal.
The tie-breaker? A to-be-played game of one-on-one when we return to Durham after Thanksgiving Break. Stay tuned.
Regardless, the CBE was definitely a highlight of the trip to Kansas City, and something all true-blue college basketball fans should experience. And even if my shot does need a little work, it was certainly fun pretending to shoot in front of a hostile crowd and measuring my shoe size against Shaq's (I've never felt so small in my life).
Now if only there was a "get yelled at by Coach K after a bad call" exhibit, the CBE would truly be complete.
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