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I have seen the blindly prideful eye of Duke fans.

During one March Madness, Duke was slated to play Wisconsin.

In an online chat and responding to derisive comments about Duke's, then well-publicized scandal about differentiated academic standards for select athletes, a Duke fan went right for the class-struggle gut punch and retorted that Wisconsin is just some "state school." I read that as academically low and, of course, beyond the dignity of a "blue-blood" school, like Duke (or $C). I chimed in that Wisconsin is one of the top five public universities for academics. She scoffed, again. Then I pointed out to that Wisconsin had, at that time, nearly as many Nobel Laureates as Duke. She never responded after that.

My takeaway is that when people pay extraordinarily high tuition, such as Duke folk, they expect an unapproachable halo of excellence and suffer no challenge to their presumptions. Take that, you low-bred state school folk. I say, pride goeth before the fall. Pride is the flaw we can use against our opponents, assuming we are not complacent in our own pride.

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Jun 11·edited Jun 11

Forgot to even look at this article yesterday. By this morning had forgotten about it and when WFC page opened up for me this morning, I was a bit puzzled over the four panel devil pics that I focused first on. What was Jon Lovitz doing posing in Memorial? (upper left panel)

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Are you sure that's CMS? And, yes, looks like some old SNL "historic video."

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I guess I'll consider them Stanfurd lite or the "poor man's" Stanfurd. Or Stanfurd 2. Or a Stanfurd replicant. In any case I've always hated them -- especially in basketball -- so I'll look forward to the Bears kicking their ass.

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I wouldn't characterize the ACC as ambivalent towards aquatics. NC State and Virginia compete for national championships in swimming. The next ACC swim championship will be loaded.

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That 2010 Cal basketball team really got hosed by the rest of the Pac-10 playing like crap that year. So even the conference champ got stuck with a bad strength of schedule and an 8 seed when they probably should have been higher. I think they were good enough to go Sweet 16 if not for having to play Duke in round two.

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UofL was a good matchup and Dook was a bad match up that year. I was living in Louisville in 2010 so that was so great.

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Will the ATO be offering ticket to Duke away games? Will they most likely only be available to significant donors?

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I'm hoping Dook and UNC are the same roadie. Cameron is smaller so there will probably be fewer tickets for Dook than UNC. I plan on going to see UNC and hopefully Dook if it's the same roadie.

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I've never had a problem getting tickets at Duke. Of course, I was on the Maryland bench 3 times and was one row behind the Maryland bench every other time. Oh and believe it or not, I have a relationship with a certain important Dookie that will make it even easier to get tickets whenever I need them.

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You lucky, Bearapin. 🐻🐢

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Yes and maybe.

But I haven’t had difficulty getting tickets to, even to small venues and high desired away games - it’s ACC so maybe a ton of Cal alum in the Research Triangle and East Coast alum want to see Cameron so I would get in touch with the ATO early on this one

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I guess it's time to reach out to the ATO now. May have to reach out to the 1 significant donor I know since they won't be going to the game.

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It’s probably a little early since the basketball schedule hasn’t been announced

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I do have a new ticket rep so maybe just to let her know that I'm very interested. But like you said, I bet many Cal fans in the area will want to go.

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author

I am the leader of the North Carolina Cal Alumni Chapter. You can ping me about activities.

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Who's Cameron?

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Oops never mind. I'm idiot

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Cameron Indoor Stadium is where Duke plays

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Oh haha you replied before I noticed my stupid mistake. Yeah I would want to go check out Cameron too.

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Dook and Dookie (similar to Furd and Furdie).

Prepare to be sweaty in Cameron- many moons ago a rich alum family gave a bunch of $ to finally install a good AC system, but Dook quit using it to maintain their sweatbox advantage.

I remember camping out at Harmon for bball season tix in a Kidd year. So happy not to have to have done that for weeks and weeks.

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author

A word of caution - if you're expecting to just show up at for a Duke basketball game, park, tailgate, and easily get a basketball ticket, you might be disappointed. Plan early.

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One of my best friends from Shanghai is a Duke grad and a HUGE HUGE Duke basketball fan and he watched or listened to every game in Shanghai . . . and he thinks the Cameron Crazies and the line culture are run by a bunch of dorks.

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I’m close in body, distant in culture & mind.

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