More than 40 campers lined up outside of the Carrier Dome’s Gate P on Friday morning, and Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim strolled in to take pictures and shake hands with the entire group.

The students are at the tail end of a five-day campout for SU’s (16-8, 7-4 Atlantic Coast) 6 p.m. game against No. 4 Duke (21-3, 8-3) on Saturday, and Boeheim expressed his gratitude for the support at a trying time of the Orange’s season.

“We’re struggling this year, we don’t have a great team but they’re doing hard. They’re doing everything they can,” Boeheim said. “We have a great stretch of games ahead of us, the toughest stretch of games we’ve ever had in Syracuse history.”

Before heading back to his silver Jeep and driving off, Boeheim repeated the phrase: the toughest stretch of games in Syracuse basketball history.

It starts with No. 4 Duke before SU hosts No. 9 Louisville Wednesday, then Pittsburgh on Saturday. After that, the Orange is set to travel to No. 10 Notre Dame and Duke, and then will host No. 2 Virginia before finishing its season at North Carolina State.

With a self-imposed postseason ban, the seven-game stretch is for pride and momentum heading into next season. As of Friday morning, 30 groups of campers — who will sleep in the Carrier Dome on Friday night due to weather warnings — sacrificed their weeks to be the first of a projected 35,446 fans to tie an on-campus attendance record set against Duke last season.

Boeheim can’t promise the devoted fans a win, but is hoping that the game matches their evident excitement.

“We’ll have a good game tomorrow,” Boeheim muttered as he navigated the crowd leading into a tent of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and donuts. “Hopefully.”

Published on February 13, 2015 at 2:28 pm

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse