Maybe I was delirious from the 10-hour car ride with no tunes. Maybe I was just plain naive, thanks to my upbringing in western Pennsylvania, where football is king of the hill. Whatever the reason, I actually believed that my hoop junkie friends and I were going to waltz right up to Cameron Indoor Stadium a few hours before the Duke-North Carolina game and get front-row seats.

But as our car pulled into Duke's campus late Friday night, we saw them. Tents, as far as the eye could see.

Then reality hit me like a Bobby Knight headbutt.

This was Duke-Carolina, a rivalry that is second to none in a state where basketball is second to none.

The ubiquitous tents are a metaphor of the intensity of the rivalry. How else do you explain a group camping out 20 days before the game just to get front-row seats in a place where there are no bad seats?

By game day there were an estimated 130 tents outside of Cameron.

Luckily for my group, there are different entrances for the undergrads and grad students. My former roommate is a first-year law student at Duke, and he scored us four tickets for $100 apiece. Seeing that tickets were reportedly going for $250 by tip-off, I'm inclined to believe he pulled off the biggest heist since the Yankees paid $100,000 for Ruth.

Anyway, the graduate line started forming at 2 a.m. Saturday, so when we arrived nine hours later, we were able to claim a good spot in line.

Cameron is loud, but no louder than Rec Hall, I concluded from my fourth-row seat.

It is the "Cameron Crazies" who distinguish Cameron from Rec Hall, and any other gym in America for that matter.

Some examples of the creativity you'd expect from kids who scored 1,400 on their SATs:

-- During pre-game introductions, the "Crazies" usually give a polite greeting to opposing players. But for a Carolina player, say Eric Montross, the "Crazies" welcomed him with a resounding "Hi, Eric . . . you suck!"

-- When Grant Hill's parents were introduced during the senior night ceremony, the elder Hills were showered with chants of "one more kid!" Then, on second thought, the "Crazies" upped their demand to "four more kids!"

-- The "Crazies" were anything but charitable when a Carolina player went to the free-throw line. They taunted Jerry Stackhouse with chants of "SAT," Rasheed Wallace with chants of "Hooked on Phonics," and Kevin Salvadori with chants of "Toucan Sam."

Oh yeah, a basketball game was played. In fact, it was the kind of game I had always imagined a Duke-Carolina game would be. Of the 17 players who saw action, I counted no less than nine future NBAers and three future superstars in Hill, Wallace and Stackhouse.

While the outcome didn't come down to the final shot, I can't imagine seeing a more well-played game. It turned into a "can-you top this?" affair, as each team threw in unbelievable shot after unbelievable shot. In the end, Carolina just had too many weapons.

While the "Crazies" glumly filed out of Cameron, muttering that their Dookies would get those damn Tar Heels at the ACC Tournament, I tried my best to keep a dopey grin off my face. After all, the only thought going through my mind was, "best hundred bucks I ever spent."