Krzyzewskiville

Krzyzewskiville, or K-ville for short, is a phenomenon that occurs before major men's basketball games at Duke University. In simplest terms, it is the line for students wishing to gain access to the designated tenting games. It is often mistakenly referred to as a ticket line. However, there are no student tickets; students are admitted from the line an hour and a half before each game.

Krzyzewskiville is named for Mike Krzyzewski, often called "Coach K", the much loved coach who has helped make Duke's basketball program one of the best in the nation. He has been known to buy pizza for the K-ville residents from time to time and has held open-forum "team meetings" with the Cameron Crazies before games against their arch-rival, the North Carolina Tar Heels.

The First K-ville

While lining up hours before games (the UNC game in particular) had always been a regular practice, every now and then a group of students would be ambitious enough to get their sleeping bags out and sleep in line the night before in order to ensure their front row seats. In 1986 Kimberly Reed, a resident of the Mirecourt selective living group, took the practice one step further and decided with a group of her Mirecourt friends to line up even earlier for the UNC game and sleep in tents. [cite news|url=http://media.www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2001/02/01/UndefinedSection/The-First.Krzyzewskiville-1453595.shtml|title=The First Krzyzewskiville|publisher=The Chronicle (Duke University)|last=Sarowitz|first=Jodi] Showing up on Thursday for the Saturday tip-off, the fifteen friends set up four tents and prepared to sleep outside of Cameron Indoor. They were quickly noticed by the rest of the student body, and by game time there were 75 tents in line to see Duke battle their long-standing rival UNC. The NBC news crew put them on the evening news, and they made the front page of USA Today. Their dedication was rewarded with a 85-72 Duke victory, and tenting in K-ville would be forever immortalized as a Duke University tradition.

K-ville rules

There are usually two tenting games per season, one of which is the game that pits the Duke Blue Devils against the North Carolina Tar Heels. Months before the actual game, students begin to put up and live in tents outside Cameron Indoor Stadium. As many as twelve people can occupy a specific tent number (many "tents" contain more than one physical tent). As regulated by Duke Student Government, [cite web|url=http://student.groups.duke.edu/K-ville|title=K-ville Website] there must be a certain number of students in the tent at regular, periodic checks.

From the beginning of tenting in early January (although the first tents usually appear between Christmas and New Year's Day) until one week before the game, tents generally must have 1 person in the tent during the day and 8 people each night. For the week before the game, only two people must be in the tent each night. The two weekend nights prior to the game are personal check nights, during which each of the twelve tent members must be at the tent for 3 of 5 personal checks spread over the two nights. If a tent misses a tent check twice, it gets moved to the end of the line (assuming availability). If K-ville is at full capacity (100 tents) and a waitlist exists at the time of the second miss, the tent gets removed completely. Tenters that lose their spot or non-tenters can, however, take their chances at the walk-up line, which forms 48 hours before tipoff. The walk-up line consists of couples, one member of each of which must be in line at all times. People in the walk-up line are not guaranteed to get into the game, and often some people who have waited more than 24 hours do not get in.

K-ville is also a social function at Duke, as many students participate at least once; it gives students a chance to mix with those not in their own dorms or classes. Duke has installed Wi-Fi service and Ethernet ports in the lightposts so that students can participate in tenting without falling behind in their schoolwork.

Robertson Scholars

In December 2006, the Duke Student Government banned Robertson Scholars from UNC (who attend Duke for one semester) from participating in tenting for the game versus UNC, although they can still get in via the walk-up line. [ [http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/acc/2006-12-11-duke-unc-krzyzewskiville_x.htm Krzyzewskiville closed to joint scholars from North Carolina] . "USA Today." Accessed on 12 Dec 2006.] Some feel this is a violation of the Robertson Scholars Program, which states that "they have full student privileges at both Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill. This includes access to courses; faculty and research opportunities; and arts, cultural, and sporting events." [ [http://www.robertsonscholars.org/index.php?type=static&source=12 Robertson Scholars - Opportunities] . "robertsonscholars.org." Accessed on 15 Dec 2006.] However, many feel that the Robertsons betrayed the spirit of the program the year before in actions that resulted in their eventual ban. That tenting season, some Robertsons tented with some full time Duke students, using their Duke ID cards to get into the game. However, once inside the student section the Robertson attendees removed Duke attire worn into the game to reveal UNC paraphanelia. To prevent this situation from happening again, Robertson Scholars were banned from tenting in K-ville, starting in 2006.

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.goduke.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=4200&KEY=&SPID=1845&SPSID=22724 Duke Men's Basketball]
* [http://krzyzewskiville.tripod.com Krzyzewskiville FanSite]
* [http://student.groups.duke.edu/K-ville K-ville website] - A guide to the tenting policies
* [http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/columnists/mccann/62-804920.cfm K-ville Students Hard at Work]