This past Tuesday my chief photographer asked me if I wanted to shoot a Duke basketball game on Saturday. My first thought was HELL YEAH! Second thought of was this. I was stupid and decided torture myself and work yet another long Saturday.
I get a late jump to the game. The press passes were nowhere to be found and had to wake up the sports girl to find them. I drive all the way to Durham. I have no idea what to expect. I'm thinking I will have to jump through hoops just to park and will have problems getting into Cameron Indoor, then finally
getting a spot to shoot.I can tell I'm getting close. I wonder where the arena is? Wait a second I thought I was in Durham.
I get to a door and ask where is the media gate.
"Come on in."
How do I get to the floor? It's my first time here.
"You go up these stairs (7 of them) and turn right and you'll see it.
I walked maybe 15 feet and I was on the court. I find a spot with the stations name and I get ready to shoot. I will be honest and I was expecting something a little larger than what it was. For those of you who know Bowling Green, it's not that much larger than Anderson Arena. It's one million times nicer than Anderson, but I was expecting a large stadium that could seat at least 20,000. Instead they say it seats just over 9,000, I don't believe that, but it's what they say.
Then I felt like Brick Tamland LOUD NOISES! I heard the Cameron Crazies. their student section wraps around half of the lower "bowl." Plus they are organized. I noticed a couple of the kids giving signals in between sections. For a random game against George Mason it was the second loudest game (loudest was when BG played Toledo and my audio was either pegging or was off. Remember the key statement there. Cameron Indoor on an off night almost beat BG on our best.
Then I saw a strange sight. It looked like Duke had at least 10 assistant coaches. Then during a time out five of the guys jumped up and started to towel off the floor. These were college kids in suits on their knees using a towel to wipe up sweat. Duke has the best dressed towel boys EVER!
Overall it was a really good experience. Duke won the game and I got some really good highlights and I learned a few things:
- Cameron Indoor is very small
- Best towel boys ever
- I really need to stop working doubles on Saturdays
- Duke students are smart and have WAY too much time on there hands.
4 comments:
That sounds cool. I wouldn't pass that opportunity either. I'm just glad you weren't too tired to shoot. Nice still pics by the way.
how much does Duke pay their towel-boys?
Probably as much as a photog or an editor makes at The Network
Good to see you've made the trip to Cameron Indoor. I've been several times -- a friend of mine, from durham, actually proposed inside the stadium (it was empty at the time).
Cameron Crazies have way to much time on their hands, but there's very few places like it when a basketball game is going down.
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