DURHAM, N.C.
Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium was built from the blueprints of Penn architects -- the plans are even on display in the concourse.
But after experiencing that great basketball venue, I can say for sure our counterparts from North Carolina have laid a worthy blueprint for Penn to follow. And Penn has a lot to learn.
Here is a quick comparison from Wednesday night, granting that Penn was not a marquee opponent for the Blue Devils.
The first thing you see when you walk into Cameron about an hour and a half before tipoff is a mostly full student section. The famed Cameron Crazies started filing in from Krzyzewskiville outside at 5:30 p.m., and the band was already there.
At the Palestra, the student sections are usually only half full at tipoff.
A lot of this can be attributed to the caliber of the program -- ACC versus Ivy League -- and that is not something that is going to change. But another influential factor that can be changed is Penn's ticket policy.
Get rid of assigned seating in the student sections. Why not allow fans to fill all of the lower seats to form a cohesive group rather than having large gaps of no-shows. There is nothing wrong with a first-come first-served policy. It creates a party of sorts among fans waiting outside to get in. Even the Duke fans were excited about a pickup football game between a group of Penn fans and some of their own.
It ended in a 7-7 tie, in case you were wondering.
Making everyone get to the Palestra earlier would create a large and organized student group that would be much more intimidating for opponents and something all fans would appreciate.
Just ask the Saint Joseph's students who were relegated to the upper level for the Hawks' game against Drexel last week. Not a soul sat in the lower sections behind the basket -- the seats belonged to Penn fans awaiting the second game of a doubleheader -- but no amount of pleading could get the security guards to let them move down. That is just silly.
At Duke, anyone with a ticket has free run of the place. I left my seat in the upper level -- the only area that is reserved -- for the Penn section behind the team bench and was never once hassled. If I had been wearing blue, I could have stood with the Crazies on the other side.
The point is, this is college basketball. It is not the NBA. So why not relax the rules and make it a more fun atmosphere?
Then take the next step, and make the tickets free. The Duke fans I surveyed in front of the arena before the game said tickets could be had for $300 a pair Wednesday. But the more than 1,300 students who packed the lower bleachers paid nothing.
Penn, meanwhile, is in rare company in charging its student fans for admission. Yes, the Athletic Department could probably use the money, but should that be the number-one priority?
Seating aside, it is the fans that make Cameron truly a sight to see. The lower bleachers comprise one part fierce competition, one part five-hour block party and two parts precisely synched clapping. One fan will start with "Let's go Devils!" and the whole place picks up on it by the second repetition. And that is just during pre-game layup lines.
The chants, by the way, get no more vulgar than "Go to hell Carolina, go to hell," and never include the word "sucks" -- on Coach K's order. Contrast that with some of the chants you hear in the Palestra.
Notably, it is the Duke band that initiates many cheers. It has the respect of the fans, something the Penn band lost years ago. The rules are simple: brass in the front, a drum set and no more than four flutes. The band at Cameron leads the entertainment, rather than just following along.
It is these little details that count.
Everything about a Duke game that you thought looked cool on television looks even better in person. That much is clear from the way they shake their hands and shout while an opposing player tries to inbound the ball to the many coordinated rituals designed to distract free-throw shooters.
I was even intimidated during pre-game introductions looking across the court at thousands of blue-clad fans waving and shouting in unison "Hi Steve" in that smug, we-are-just-humoring-you-in-a-"we know you know you're going to lose" sort of way. And I did not have to guard Shelden Williams, like the aforementioned Steve Danley did.
A Duke game is amazing not because it is Duke but because the fans make it so.
All of this is not to say that Duke fans are more passionate about their basketball, or that Penn should pick up some of the chants the Cameron Crazies echo. That would be an insult to the thousands of Quakers fans who make games at the Palestra enjoyable.
But if Penn wants to get to that next level, it is worth taking a look at some other blueprints.
Jeff Shafer is a senior management and marketing concentrator from Columbia Falls, Mont., and former sports editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is jshafer@wharton.upenn.edu
