A home ticket for the Duke vs. UNC men's college basketball game typically goes for $2000-$5000, but undergrads can get in through a meritocracy-based process called tenting. Our tent earned a final rank of 3 and was featured on the Duke main website during the 2019 NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Left to right: Jasmine, Raiyan, Ankit, Kathy, Brandon, Shelly, Sachin, Henry, Vihasa, Mark, Danny, and Joy.
1st & 2nd rows, Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke vs. UNC. Final: 86-78.

ENTRANCE EXAM

In order to qualify for 1 of 70 black tent spots (among 150 vying groups), we took the following written exam. Hilariously, it is typeset in LaTeX as if it were a legitimate math exam. Danny was our team captain.

This is the exam that teams were required to take, released by the Duke Chronicle. Specific knowledge included previous individual game statistics, coaching staff information, and all player information (position, name, high school, home town).

BLACK TENTING LIFE

As Tent "u" (not merit-based ranking yet), we lived in this tent for several weeks. Rules for black tenting included the presence of two people in the tent at all times, and at least ten members inside at night except during Grace (< 25˚F, or one hour after a tent check). Up to 3 times a night, line monitors would blare a siren and require all members of each tent check in to confirm their presence through roll call and a custom app. Tent check frequency was directly proportional to rainfall and inversely proportional to temperature. Typically, ten or more sleeping bags lined our tent floor every night and would then be rolled up every morning at the daily 7 AM exodus from K-Ville. On warmer spring days, more than 5 people would be at the tent, each of us enjoying each other's presence during the remainder of our senior year.

Our hanging post sign said tent "µ" because there was some internal confusion due to bad writing. We stuck with it. See the gallery below for the build process. Not pictured: any work getting done at all.

Below is a sample of our black tent schedule, as organized by Jasmine. Shifts were split into 30 minute intervals. Nights were spent playing competitive facebook games, cards, and eating McDonalds during Grace.

TRIVIA EXAM AND RANKING

Tenting group entrance priority is based on ranking. Ranking is determined by cumulative points earned, which are given for attendance to other Duke sporting events (tennis, wrestling, etc.). However, the bulk of points are determined by a comprehensive trivia exam, including the entire history of Duke Basketball. We distributed topics among ourselves - some notable topics that actually appeared were the number of every single Duke retired jersey, every single Duke lottery pick in the NBA, and even DUKE TWITTER PRESENCE. Our finalranking of 3, only behind the Duke Catholic Center student group, and of course, das Boot.

Colorized history, rare picture: Raiyan uses modified right-hand rule to determine the number of Olympic medals that Coach K won as head coach.

The trivia exam , released by the Duke Chronicle.

Gameday: Outside the Stadium

Our tenting group's costume theme was med. school. Our gameday attire included blue scrubs, stethoscopes, medical student badges, and blue facepaint. Unfortunately, they took away our custom poster before the game.

Gameday: Inside the Stadium

We had a great time.