Cameron Indoor Is Home Sweet Home

Now that the 2019 basketball regular season has come and gone, with Duke concluding its home slate by topping Wake Forest for the fifth time in five tries with Danny Manning as coach – this year by a whisker -- we can do a bit of reckoning.

This will be the last season for the foreseeable future that features 18 ACC contests, nine home and nine away. Starting next year the count will move to 20: 10 and 10.

The number of ACC games changed to 16 for the 1991-92 season to accommodate the addition of Florida State. The schedule stayed that way for two decades, jumping in 2012-13 to the 18-game slate that concludes this weekend.

Looking back over the past 10 years, Duke and Mike Krzyzewski lost 11 times at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

From 2010 through ’14 the Blue Devils were unbeaten at Cameron every year except 2012, when they lost three times – to Florida State, Miami and UNC. That vulnerability was duplicated in 2016 with losses to Notre Dame, Syracuse and UNC.

Of those 11 home defeats over 10 seasons, three were administered by Carolina’s Roy Williams, including this year with Zion Williamson injured in the opening minute. Williams visits annually, and also lost seven at Cameron.

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim has two wins at Durham in six tries as an ACC member, with one coming this year during an overtime game in which Tre Jones was hurt and Cam Reddish out. Miami’s Jim Larranaga has a pair of victories at Duke since taking over at Coral Gables in 2012.

By contrast, the ACC’s Hall of Famers beside Coach K haven’t fared so well on their home floors.

Boeheim’s teams have lost 18 at the Carrier Dome in six seasons since joining the ACC in 2014, including a final ’19 meeting with Virginia earlier this week. North Carolina’s Williams has lost 17 ACC matchups at the Smith Center since 2010, including five times in nine tries against Duke, pending the season finale this coming Saturday.

Among the ACC’s other long-tenured coaches, Virginia’s Tony Bennett has lost 18 ACC games at JPJ Arena in his decade at Virginia, with a dozen of those defeats coming in his first three seasons.

Since 2013 UVa has been unbeaten at Charlottesville three times in ACC play and lost one game in three separate seasons. Duke has three of the half dozen league wins by visitors over the past seven years, including 2019.

Leonard Hamilton’s teams have lost 23 at home against conference rivals over the past decade. Their sole home ACC loss at Tallahassee in 2019 came against Duke on a last-second three by Cam Reddish in January.

In a very odd twist, both of Duke’s ACC home losses came on nights the game was preceding by playing another country’s national anthem prior to presenting the U.S. version. Australia’s anthem and flag were featured before facing Syracuse, in honor of Blue Devil co-captain Jack White. In a nod to the roots of senior Antonio Vrankovic, Croatia was saluted ahead of taking on Carolina.