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Duke's Coach K, J.J. Redick talk 'Krzyzewskiville' with Sue Bird ahead of UNC basketball game

john leuzzi, usa today network
·4 min read

Coach K is tenting in Krzyzewskiville?

"K-Ville" is typically filled by Duke undergraduate students leading up to the annual Duke-North Carolina game. Ahead of Saturday's meeting between the Blue Devils and Tar Heels, legendary Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski recently set up shop and took part in the tradition with UConn and WNBA legend Sue Bird on ESPN+'s "Sue's Places."

The episode, which aired on ESPN+ Wednesday, shows Bird trying to find out what it takes to become a Cameron Crazy for the Duke-UNC rivalry game from Coach K and former Duke legend J.J. Redick. The series, which is produced by Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions company and modeled off of Manning's own ESPN+ original series "Peyton's Places," consists of Bird traveling the country and learning the history and traditions of college basketball.

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Here are some interesting takeaways from the episode:

Coach K called Krzyzewskiville 'mini-Woodstock'

Krzyzewskiville, the student-run city on Duke's campus, got its name in 1986 when a group of Duke students from the Mirecourt House decided to set up tents and camp outside Cameron Indoor ahead of the Blue Devils game against North Carolina for a whole four days.

As legend has it, one of the students scribbled "Krzyzewskiville" on a makeshift cardboard sign out of the arena and the rest became history for the village that honors Krzyzewski.

"The students, they were creative inside Cameron, so they were really creative outside," Krzyzewski said on how the K-Ville tradition started. "They started having extension courts, hot tubs and music. It was like a mini-Woodstock. Bands (were) playing and we delivered pizzas and walked through.

"But boy, it’s really evolved."

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The Cameron Crazies

The encampment, which begins in January and lasts six weeks leading up to the annual home North Carolina game, is now overseen by Duke and run by student line monitors who make sure each tent has at least one Duke student, or Cameron Crazy, in it at all times.

When asked by Bird how important it was to have the student section play into their home court advantage during his 42 years in Durham, Krzyzewski said "extremely, especially in tight moments."

"I remember the defensive moments where you have that one-point lead or one-possession lead and you need a stop. If you get a stop, we win," Krzyzewski said. "And when (Steve) Wojo (Wojciechowski) or Bobby Hurley (would) slap the floor, the building would shake and we’d make the stop. When it worked, there was an explosion.

"The feeling you get from that I think is even greater than the feeling of a guy hitting a shot.”

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Bobby Hurley was once brought out in a duffle bag

It's no surprise that when playing for a program like Duke invites criticism, heckling and sometimes hate from throughout country. Just ask Christian Laettner, Krzyzewski said.

But the opposite can also happen. Krzyzewski even went so far as to compare the Blue Devils of the late 1980s and early '90s — which included Laettner, Hurley and Grant Hill, among others — to the Beatles. Krzyzewski alleged that Hurley at one time had to exit a road game at Maryland through a back window and duffel bag to get onto the bus.

"We were playing in Maryland (at the) Cole Field House (and) we had to sneak Bobby out through a window in a duffel bag because there were so many people wanting Hurley and (we were like), ‘He left already,'" Krzyzewski said. "He actually was in a duffel. It’s crazy. You couldn’t put Laettner in a duffel bag. But Hurley, I think he kind of liked it."

REQUIRED READING: Duke basketball vs. UNC: ESPN's College GameDay coming to Cameron Indoor Stadium

J.J. Redick's one night out in Krzyzewskiville

Redick established himself as one of the best college basketball shooters in history during his four years at Duke. When asked if he ever camped out in K-Ville himself, the 2006 Naismith National Player of the Year told a story from his sophomore season when he went out the night before the Blue Devils defeated the Tar Heels 70-65.

"I hung out in K-Ville once. I’m not proud to admit this (but), my sophomore year, we were all hanging out in the dorm, it was our last game of the season and I was a little bit of a frat kid my sophomore year and so we decided to go hangout in K-Ville," Redick said. "This was probably like 9:30, 10 o’clock at night.

"If you’ve ever been to K-Ville, the night before the UNC game, it’s like one massive block party. People come in from all over and it’s not just the Duke students. And so, I may have played a few games of beer pong with UNC fans in K-Ville the night before the UNC game."

And as for his record?

"Probably 2-1 that night," Redick said.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Duke basketball's Coach K, J.J. Redick talk 'Krzyzewskiville' with Sue Bird