The Calm Before the Storm

I wish you could all see Mackey Arena right now. With tomorrow's highly anticipated match up against Duke, the Paint Crew students were allowed to camp out starting today at noon for the 600 lower bowl seats. The seats are general admission and the university has given them permission to do this for four games this season, today being the first. We expected a sort of mad-house with maybe 30 or 40 groups but at noon there were 138 groups! Its been snowing most of the day and at this time of night, there are tents of all shapes and sizes on the tarmac of the arena just outside the student entrance. There only needs to be one member of the group present at all times (a group can be up to 10 students) but it seems that the majority of the students are toughing it out together. I am still at work at 9:52pm and the electronic board outside Mackey says 23.4 degrees and there are students playing football, doing homework, and sleeping outside my door. Its quite a sight! These few pictures cant really capture it... plus I was shivering so they are a little blurry. I will try to get some better ones in the daylight tomorrow but I wanted to share with you how far the Paint Crew has come since the good old days of the Gene Pool. For any sports fan, this is as good as it gets! Tune in tomorrow night at 9pm (eastern) on ESPN for whats sure to be an awesome game with lots of love for the Paint Crew for Dickey V. He should arrive tomorrow afternoon so hopefully he spends some time with the kids and gives a little nod to our students and not just the dukies all the time!