College Basketball Ombudsman: Intimidating Opponents Succesfully

I was looking forward to watching the announcer swap resulting in Dick Vitale and Dan Schulman announcing the Nuggets - Heat game and Mike Terico, Mark Jackon and Jeff Van Gundy announcing the Davidson - Duke game. However, while reading up on it, I came across this article:
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/jan/06/four-questions-for-dick-vitale/ .

In it, Dicky V talks about how great the Cameron Crazies are. For some reason, this is the default statement for every announcer or college basketball pundit. It is unthinkable to say otherwise on record. However, outside of people who actually went to Duke, I can’t think of one person who doesn’t actively dislike Duke basketball generally, and the Cameron Crazies specifically. Why?

To understand why the Cameron Crazies are the least liked student cheering section in the country, one must look at three things – the students, their behavior, and the context of that behavior.

The students at Duke are primarily rich kids who grew up in affluent neighborhoods, attended elite high schools and, in many cases, did not have to rely on academic merit to get accepted into the institution. While it casts an unfair light on the students who do have the academics and test scores, the last point is a fact when compared to other institutions: Duke is one of the main (if not the main) culprit of legacy admissions and admissions based on applicant wealth of any college in the country. It adds little to this entry to also mention that the students are generally socially awkward and speak in faux-southern accents, but I’ve gone ahead and noted it anyway. But, moving on, the point is – that should be enough. You’re rich, well-educated, floating along, on your way to being successful...just enjoy your life. Go to basketball games and root for your nationally ranked team and cheer and hope they win.

But that isn’t enough. They can’t just go to basketball games.

The Cameron Crazies are not satiated until they have mocked, derided and harassed the opponents and their fans. Duke could be ahead by 35 points with 4 minutes left and if Greg Paulus hit a three the fans would go absolutely berserk. They would shriek with delight, as if to say – We love winning while being obnoxious, but humiliating people while being obnoxious is even better! Look at my pants with little whales on them!

And who are the people they are mocking and, often times, humiliating? Typically the opposing athletes are poor, urban kids who did not have the same educational opportunities in their past and do not have the same career prospects in their futures.

I will grant that the Cameron Crazies are in college and should be given some room for immaturity. However, even with that mitigating factor, it still shows a lack of judgment to behave that way and not realize (or not care) how you’ll be perceived.

In conclusion, I once slapped Steve Wojohowski at an Arbys in Winston-Salem.