We just got inside Cameron Indoor Stadium, which was empty except for a few Duke big men working on post moves and some miscellaneous press members and support staff milling about. That said ...
Cameron is awesome. Awesome. It is simultaneously an old, rich, traditional icon and a new, high-class basketball arena. No seat is a bad seat and every sound echoes to each opposite corner of the arena. Also, it feels a little like your grade school gym - small hallways, close bleachers, etc - but if your grade school gym was taking obscene amounts of Barry Bonds' special sauce.
As you could probably tell, this is our first trip to Cameron - and to Duke's campus as a whole - and we are unanimously impressed. We ripped Durham earlier, but man - Duke's campus more than makes up for the town's issues. It's woody, compact, beautiful ... I'm gushing, so you get the point.
Anyway, our seat is courtside, and we're fighting back butterflies. We're also fighting back the Crazies; they like to crowd the court behind the press area and make things difficult for the reporters, we hear. It's already looking like a challenge to get to our seat. But hey, it's time to be professional, to prove we're worth the paper our press passes were printed on. No more sightseeing; it's game time.
Unfortunately, columnist Ryan Corazza does not have our cushy courtside seat, but he will have a live blog starting here relatively soon. Stick around; the man knows blogging and he knows IU basketball. He'll take you home.
