Springsteen

I have a question.

I'm a huge Duke fan. Always have been, and I dont see that changing. I've been in love with the program there since I started following NCAA ball in the early 90's and they had Laetner and Bobby Hurley.

However, lately, I've really become enamoured with Gary Willams. He seems like a great guy, and he gets a lot out of his players. Also, the guys on his team play smart, team oriented basketball.

Really though, what I'm trying to get at is...can I be both a Maryland fan and a Duke fan?

ChiBullsFan

No, you can't!

Actually, it's funny cause when I really sit down and think about it and I'm not getting in a debate with a Maryland fan, I have the utmost respect for both the Duke and Maryland programs.

Both programs are led by top coaches who know how to mold a program. Both are quite good at keeping their players around (at least longer than they should) and they graduate players which is important.

What really makes me HATE Maryland, more than anything, are their fans. They are classless and crude.

At the same time, I must admit in all honesty, I also HATE the Cameron Crazies. Don't get me wrong, I like that they exist and have this aura as being the best fans, but they are very overrated. Your average die-hard Cam Crazie is a HUGE DORK. These are the people with no social lives that need to feel like they "belong" to something so they camp out for basketball games. It's really quite sad, and I can't believe they get the reputation as rowdy fans. I'm not kidding, many of them brings books into the game so they can study.

I went to two games my freshman year, and never went again because it was such a brutal experience. I like to WATCH basketball, not be a goddam cheerleader, which is all the Crazies amount to. You can't sit down ever and you have to put up with idiots shouting in your ear the whole time, and they don't even know sh!t about hoops. So I stopped going -- I just couldn't be a part of it.

Also, they haven't come up with a creative cheer in about 5 years, and they are spoiled. The Crazies got berated by Coach K this year for not showing support and filling the stands just because it was an admitted "down year".

Anyway, I'm done with my rant.

Conclusion: Duke and Maryland are GREAT programs and their coaches and players deserve a lot of respect. The fans? Not so much...

DaFuture

National Championship it seems like yesterday.

Thats a tough question Springsteen considering that both programs play in the same conference, have been the most succesful ACC teams over the past few years and while Maryland has had a much tougher road to the national limelight and doesnt get half as much hype as Duke (whether it is deserved or not is debatable). Not to mention our fans our very similar while you guys get the notoriety for your cleverness. Maryland fans have proved to be quite witty in recent years. We do have other chants other than "fuke duke"


However who am I to say who cannot be a Maryland fan, I would put you in the MD supporter category, not a fan yet, that takes at least 6 months of Blake turnovers, and Holden's wimpish play. But with your gusto you could be a fan in maybe a month. C'mon on aboard my man. Anybody who knows good msic like you do (your screenname) and recognizes GW as a coaching genius is a good enough for me Despite GW's profuse sweating problem and tendency to hit the bottle a little. He is a great guy and one of the best interviews out their. Always has a joke and is respectful.


You Springsteen have been coronated as a Maryland Fan!!! Congratualtions !!! You are a Terrapin!! You should visit UMD some time it is a great place and Comcast Center is unrivaled in the nation, not the same hsitory as other places but the architecture is well in a word AMAZING!!!

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Been Gone For A Minute!

DaFuture

from hormone raging aduolescents away from Mommy and Daddy for the first time. I think they have their place in college and you have to admit that some of the stuff is pretty funny. Except for the riots that my friend was no fun if you live in College Park or around there.

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Been Gone For A Minute!

The Truth

I agree that the Cameron Crazies have lost all originality. What really upsets me is that some of them came out and said Coach K didn't know what he was talking about when he said he was disappointed in them and that the atmosphere has changed. Coach K was absolutely right.

The stuff that the Crazies did back in the 70s and 80s was stuff of legend. Anymore, they are just ordinary.

However, the blue speedo guy was pretty damn funny this year.

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"Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else."

The Truth

You can be a fan of one and respect another, but I don't think you can be a "true" fan of both teams.

I think that Gary Williams means well, but he is a wreck on the sidelines. He spends his time throwing pens at managers and cursing at fans. Last year during one game, they had a camera devoted to Williams throughout the entire game. During breaks, they would show his sideline antics and showed his huddles during half-time. Everything he said was incoherant jibberish.

I think he's a good coach, but sometimes he is a slave to his anger and can't think straight.

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"Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else."

DaFuture

are talking about. Gary's antics are overrated. Like John Gilchrist said "People think he is is just yelling and screaming, but if you listen to what he has to say you realize he is a genius!" The media overrates his antics too much, most of the time he is telling the people on the bench what not to do and aksing why did he do that. Izzo is just as bad but becuase Gary sweats he gets more media attention. K is no angel himself.

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The Truth

The difference between Coach K and Williams on the sidelines is that Coach K picks his spots, and Gary just yells all the time. Even if Gary is saying something valuable when he is screaming, the screaming does no good, because players learn to tune the screaming out. Coach K uses his screaming as motivation. He does scream a lot on the sidelines, but it is mostly at the refs. He rarely yells at his players, but when he does, they know that he means business and it can really affect them.

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"Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else."

Springsteen

What the hell is a true fan?

DaFuture

then how come he has been so succesful if all he does is yell and his players tune hime out? Some players dont respond to it Dan Miller, Terrence Morris, other respond and produce, but he does not yell at the players on the bench, he yells at them not to do what their teammate just did. Next time dont believe the hype and come to a game and actuallly listen to what he says. I guess you would knwo what works and what doesnt after all byou do coach at an elite program and have won a national championship?



If he was as wild as you say he would have gotten more techs and he hardly ever gets any.

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Been Gone For A Minute!

ChiBullsFan

if things aren't going his way, Gary can definitely fly off the handle. When his team is playing well, his demeanor is calm and he is as good as any coach in the country. When things start to slip away, however, Gary becomes a lot less effective as a coach and it's something he should work on. One of the major differences between Williams and Coach K is that I've rarely been able to see Gary coach his team back INTO the game the way Coach K has on many occasions when things are going bad.

In fact, two such games that underline this difference are Duke coming back against Maryland in the final four, down by 17, and the amazing JWill led comeback in the final minute of the game at Cole in January of 2001.

But yes, DaFuture, his antics are probably a bit overblown by the media, and the "Sweat, Gary, Sweat!" cheers from the Crazies definitely help perpetuate that characterization of him.

Just a quick correction to this statement, the Crazies were really at their peak in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They didnt even really have a reputation until the Coach K era. I'd say their last good year was back in 1999 during the Brand/Langdon/Maggette/Avery year. They came up with a few original cheers and really got in the heads of a few opposing players (remember Steve Francis grabbing his crotch at the fans???). The home game against Maryland that year also gave birth to the infamous "Who's your daddy? Battier!" cheer when a sophomore Shane went off for a 27 point outburst.