DURHAM, N.C. —  It was 8:55 at the Devil’s Krafthouse, a small pub tucked underneath the Bryan Center on Duke University’s campus. With Syracuse and Duke set to tip-off in an under an hour, Duke fans chuckled at the idea of a Syracuse-Duke rivalry.

“They’ve been in the conference a few years,” a fan in a white Duke jersey said as he watched the Clemson-Kansas game on a TV practically to himself.

“We have Carolina,” a middle-aged man in a Duke hat a few circle tables over added.

“Of course it is!” a fan amongst a group of friends said before chuckling. He paused. “Nah, it’s not.”

Up Interstate 81, more than 620 miles away from Krafthouse, Otto the Orange pranced into the Schine Student Center to a loud cheer. A Syracuse fan, clothed in an Orange blazer and matching T-shirt, walked up to the mascot and posed for a selfie.

“Beat Duke!” he yelled.

Otto quickly proceeded through a set of double doors. Past the table with Otto’s Army hats, beads and socks, past the pizza boxes and chicken tender trays, and into the cafeteria. A group of Student Association members prepped its first watch party of SU’s most-recent impromptu NCAA Tournament run.

One volunteer noded to another and the doors opened again, welcoming the SU fans hoping to see another upset. Their counterparts at the Krafthouse waited patiently in the seats they had already claimed for a game they had previously anticipated. And thus proceeded what the oddsmakers expected: a 69-65 Blue Devils win in the Sweet 16.

At the Krafthouse, owner Andy Perno, a Rochester, New York, native who grew up an SU fan, tried to control the crowd at the door. His restaurant was modestly full, and students improvised.

“This is the most crowded it’s been since the Carolina game,” he said, referring to Duke’s 74-69 loss to UNC in the ACC tournament.

Suddenly, two kids at the door carrying chairs from the Au Bon Pain out in the main part of the student center caught Perno’s eye.

“You can bring those in, but you have to put them back,” he said. “No one put them back after the Carolina game.”

While CBS’ pregame package aired in Syracuse, a worker in the back of the now-packed cafeteria raised the volume of a projector. A pack of fans in the middle of the room called out, wishing for it to be tuned to ‘44.’

“No one knows what that number means,” a fan in a blue SU sweatshirt said. “We’re told it means something.”

His concerns were eventually washed out as Schine buzzed. Duke’s Grayson Allen gave an interview on screen and the crowd booed. Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim flashed on the projector and a woman in an Orange shirt bowed her arms toward him.

Josh Shub-Seltzer | Staff Photographer

When the game tipped off, Perno yelled, “Go Cuse!” It’s the loudest someone at the Krafthouse yelled for the entire first half. When Duke scored its first basket, a Blue Devil fan sporting a blue No. 12 jersey stopped his pace around the table and settled comfortably into his seat.

An Orange fan in a white sweater put his hands up and smirked as Trevon Duval jogged down the floor. “We got this,” he said in Schine to bystanders.

After Paschal Chukwu finished an alley-oop, the same fan lowered his head and roared “Chukwu!” as those around him cheered.

SU’s 7-foot-2 center drew the ire of the Orange fans later in the first half, however. An elbow knocked out a contact lense and sent him to the floor, allowing a Duke forward to convert an easy dunk.

“Why are you taking off in the middle of the play?” one fan asked in frustration.

A Krafthouse customer, in a sweatshirt and button down, neither of which were in Duke colors, chuckled at the incident.

“Did he drop his contacts? Ah that sucks,” he said. “Now he’s gotta go in front of a mirror and wash his hands.”

When the SU trainers assisted Chukwu in replacing his contacts, the Duke fans roared in hysterics, including a table of six sitting beside the bar. One friend had missed the folly, though, strolling in about 10 minutes later with his backpack. The Duke student promptly took out his laptop. He had an assignment due at midnight, he said.

“At least I’m here watching,” he quipped.

Late in the first half, both viewing parties watched Orange forward Oshae Brissett rise up, reach back and clank a wide-open dunk. An SU fan in a white, long-sleeve shirt saw the missed opportunity and pulled at her blonde hair. Syracuse’s hot start had cooled, and the Schine crowd grew restless.

In Durham, the fans clapped. They let out a sigh of relief and continued on with their conversations. At the table of six, two members motioned to leave.

“You guys leaving?” a fan in a black Cameron Crazies shirt asked.

“We’ll be back,” his friend in a J.J. Redick jersey said.

The halftime buzzer sounded, and a group of viewers made their way to the back of the Schine dining room to the orange-and-white cookies and other snacks. Those in attendance weren’t as confident in an SU win as they were before the game. Yet they still thought an upset was in reach.

“I think the zone is working well but they are giving up too many free throws,” one fan said while munching on a cookie.

Around the room of the Krafthouse, there was almost a consensus. Duke was going to win.

“I think the zone hurt us early,” said the man sporting his Cameron Crazies shirt. “They were pressuring the three. I think we figure it out and win by 15.”

The outlier, a blonde-bearded man, wasn’t sure of his final score prediction. In the end, he decided on Syracuse, admitting he hadn’t really paid enough attention in the first half anyway. He had been talking.

As the favorites’ lead grew slightly after the break, fan’s frustrations started to boil over in Schine. One partisan, donning a makeshift uniform made up of an orange Nike jersey and matching shorts, sat near the front row and barked out orders.

“Rotate! Rotate! Hands up!” he said.

With every Syracuse miss and subsequent Duke make, he gazed at the ceiling and prayed. When Chukwu missed a dunk that would’ve cut the deficit to one, the fan whacked a table three times and screamed. Most fans groaned with him and a few pulled their new hats over their eyes.

Molly Gibbs | Assistant Photo Editor

In Durham, the Duke student made his deadline. He left briefly around halftime to finish his assignment. He hadn’t missed much, Duke still led, the other two members of the six table crew were still out and about. The Duke fan in the No. 12 jersey, who once stood for the opening tip-off, still lounged in his seat.

Occasionally the Duke crowd livened up, often on 3-point attempts. On a Gary Trent Jr. 3-pointer with just under 12 minutes remaining, a fan staring at the screen dipped his hip slightly when the ball clanked off the rim, almost wincing. As Marvin Bagley III put back the rebound, the fan in his 2015 National Championship shirt turned to his friend and smirked.

Duke’s lead steadied over the latter portion of the second frame, and SU’s staff sensed the outcome. Student Association and Otto’s Army workers took down the curtains that bordered the cafeteria from the dining room in the game’s final minutes.

As Trent Jr. iced the contest with free throws, heads fell into hands and the final seconds bled off the clock with a whimper. The projector feed cut out, and Schine quickly emptied. Within minutes, it was like the event never happened.

“What do we do now, guys?” an SU fan asked her friends now outside the student center. “What do we do?”

It took less than three minutes for the Krafthouse to clear out. The Duke fans applauded and turned their backs on their TVs all at once.

“A win’s a win,” a Duke fan said as he carried his chair out.

Published on March 24, 2018 at 1:06 pm

Contact Nick: nialvare@syr.edu | @nick_a_alvarez