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Cameron craziness Duke arena's atmosphere will challenge Tar Heels
Updated: Thursday February 01, 2001 2:31 AM
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- You see the craziness on TV and hear stories of what teams face when they venture into Cameron Indoor Stadium to play against Duke. Take all the antics -- the face-painting, the yelling and screaming, the overall mayhem and hysteria -- and double it when No. 4 North Carolina comes to town Thursday night to play No. 2 Duke for first place in the Atlantic Coast Conference. In addition to trying to stop the 3-point shooting of Shane Battier, Jason Williams and Nate James, the Tar Heels (17-2, 7-0 ACC) will face a tidal wave of noise and taunts from the Cameron Crazies. The students have camped out in tents for weeks near Cameron for an opportunity to stand, stomp, taunt and yell at the archrival Tar Heels. "You're basically playing against the whole gym," North Carolina junior Jason Capel said. "You are not just playing against the five Duke guys on the floor, you're playing against everybody. You have to stick together as a team. ... You can't win there if you don't keep your composure."
The Blue Devils (19-1, 7-0) are 157-19 in Cameron since the 1990 season, 10-0 this year. In the age of big coliseums with corporate names, Cameron is a throwback: a 51-year-old gym that holds just 9,314, with students rimming the entire court. The noise during a game can make your ears ring and your head hurt, not to mention making it difficult for opposing players to communicate with one another. North Carolina players said they plan to use hand signals if it gets too loud. "I don't think people camp out outside of this place for weeks at a time to come in and be quiet," Battier said. Capel is the Tar Heels' resident expert on Cameron. He's making his third trip as a player, and watched his brother Jeff, a Duke guard from 1993-97, play there. "You can just feel the electricity," he said. "I don't think there's another place in college athletics like that place. ... You can't breathe in there, the fans are down on you yelling and screaming the whole game. I mean, your bench feels like it's in the crowd." Carolina center Brendan Haywood said the it "gets so loud you can feel the floor bouncing." Then, there is going to the free-throw line, which has been an adventure anywhere for the Tar Heels, who are shooting just 64.8 percent from the line this season. Capel's best advice is keep your routine and a straight face. "I don't look up at the rim until I'm just about to shoot it because I know they're going to be doing something crazy back there," Capel said. "I'm scared to [laugh] because coach [Matt] Doherty might see me." Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said playing in Cameron guarantees his team nothing. North Carolina's 29-34 overall mark is the best of any ACC team in the gym. "I know our guys like to go into an opposing arena and win," Krzyzewski said. "Absolutely, it can be a huge motivator for an opponent. Sometimes here the expectancy to win is so high when a team really plays you hard, game pressure can come on you. That can happen to any home team." Doherty, a starter but role player on the 1982 national title team that included Michael Jordan, James Worthy and Sam Perkins, never was much of a target of the Duke crowd. "They were smarter than that to attack me. I wasn't going to have a whole lot of impact on winning the game," he said. But Doherty actually was a target of the Cameron Crazies his senior season, when he was quoted as saying Duke fans were just a bunch of rude Northerners from New York and New Jersey. Doherty also was poking fun at himself, since he's from Long Island. Doherty will be a target again Thursday night. Duke students plan to wear "I said No to Dean" T-shirts that list Roy Williams, Larry Brown, George Karl and other coaches in front of Doherty's name -- the reference being that Doherty was not former coach Dean Smith's top choice last summer to take over for retiring Bill Guthridge. "I think I'm sixth on the list," Doherty said. "But that's OK."
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