K & the Crazies: Recent Episodes
Daron Vaught & Brian McLawhorn
The entity of the ”Cameron Crazies” and legendary Duke men‘s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski run a parallel line of progress. With the team’s level of success since ”Coach K” was hired over 40 years ago, the most elaborate and passionate student section in all of college sports has evolved.
Centered around an exclusive interview with Coach K, “K & the Crazies” features dozens of other interviews to examine the symbiotic relationship between the greatest coach in a sport‘s history and the cultural phenomena of the Cameron Crazies and ”Krzyzewskiville.”
Duke players have their locker room. They have the practice facility, where the team works as a unit, removed from their classmates and those who cheer them on. The Crazies have “Krzyzewskiville,” where they call home for nearly two months every season. Until game time, they are separate. But once inside the walls of Cameron Indoor Stadium, the players, coaches, and Crazies become one, fighting together for a single cause.
Sometimes, it's a big party. Other nights, it's a group study session in freezing-cold temperatures. The lawn outside of Cameron Indoor Stadium, known as "Krzyzewskiville," has become as iconic and important to the traditions of Duke basketball as their quaint yet legendary stadium. Most Duke students have experiences there. Few have a legacy like that of the guys behind "Das Boot."
Most college basketball fans are aware of Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski — his hall of fame status, five national championships, six U.S. Men’s National Team gold medals and the record for total wins at the Division-I level. Those same fans likely know of the raucous Duke student fan base affectionately known as the “Cameron Crazies,” as well as their reputation for living in tents for months at a time to secure highly coveted front-row seats inside historic Cameron Indoor Stadium. But what makes the Cameron Crazies unique? How did the phenomenon of the Crazies get started, and how has it evolved over the last 40-plus years Coach K has led the Blue Devils basketball program? Together, we begin our exploration of these questions.