Duke Basketball: A Look at the Cameron Crazies and Tyler Lewis Situation
By Ethan Novak
Feb 7, 2013; Durham, NC, USA; Duke Blue Devils fans get pumped up against the North Carolina State Wolfpack before their game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Dolejs-USA TODAY Sports
Duke pulled off an impressive 98-85 win over North Carolina State in Durham last night, but just a day later, the score and highlights of the game have already taken a back seat to controversy that happened off the court.
The controversy wasn’t too far off the court, however. In fact, the controversy took place just a few feet away in Duke’s student section, better knows as The Cameron Crazies.
According to the good ol’ people of the social media websites, the Cameron Crazies could be heard chanting ‘How’s your grandma?!’ at North Carolina State freshman Tyler Lewis while Lewis shot free throws at the 13:47 mark in the second half. No big deal, right? This just kind of like a more elaborate, more disgusting ‘your mom’ joke, right? Wrong. See, the young man’s grandmother passed away last Friday and I’m fairly certain even Oakland Raiders fans would call someone joking about an opposing player’s dead relative a low blow.
While this has caused everyone to jump on the already-packed, “We Hate Duke” bandwagon, those who haven’t pulled out their Jump To Conclusions mat may have actually listened to the defense of the Crazies.
Numerous people who were either at the game or watched it on ESPN3 said they never heard the chant, instead hearing the Crazies shouting, ‘Past your bedtime!’ The chant is likely a jab at Lewis being a freshman in college who looks like a freshman in high school and, if true, would turn a horrifying situation into one that is just the Cameron Crazies being the Cameron Crazies we’ve always known.
It is a difficult situation, however, as video (posted below) of the chant can be interpreted either way. It does sound like they’re chanting ‘How’s Your Grandma?’ It does sound like they’re chanting, ‘Past your bedtime’. It can be interpreted either way, depending on whether you want to defend or crucify the student section.
Possibly the best source we can get on this is Rick Lewis, the father of Tyler. According to Mr. Lewis, the chant was in fact ‘Past your bedtime’, but a few brainless students tried to outdo their fellow classmates, leading to a small amount of students chanting ‘How’s your grandma?”:
"“It was mostly ‘Past your bedtime,’ but there was an instant when a brief number of students chanted about Tyler’s grandmother,” Rick Lewis said Friday. “It wasn’t the entire student section, I think a few tried to outdo themselves.”"
It is a tough situation for the Cameron Crazies. If the reports are true and they were in fact taunting the death of Lewis’ grandmother, then they’ve just performed one of the more classless acts I’ve seen from a student section. If the reports are untrue and they were just taking a jab at the youthful appearance of Lewis, who the heck is going to believe them? They cheer for the one of the most hated programs in college sports, and people will always find any reason they can to add to their hate for Duke.
The video REALLY makes it sound like they are saying, ‘past your bedtime’, especially during the second free throw. The very end of their sentence doesn’t sound anything like the word ‘grandma’ to me.
There may have been a few students in there trying to throw out taunts of his grandmother’s passing, but this is no reason to cast off the entire cheering section as classless. Still, we live in a world where judgement and decisiveness is quick in the eyes of most sports fans and the damage of the Cameron Crazies reputation may already be damaged, regardless of whether or not they were being cruel in the first place.