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 (Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction) caption:
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Venable's Courageous Effort for Princeton Even Drew Applause From Cameron Crazies
By Bill Alden
Some paint their faces blue while others fashion makeshift hoops on their heads.
They are the "Cameron Crazies," the denizens of the raucous student section at Duke University basketball's Cameron Indoor Stadium.
One of their chief aims is to rattle opposing players. They gather in warm-ups and stand in unison hurling insults at the unfortunate visiting players.
Typically, they keep up the chanting and needling until the final horn sounds, creating a din in the venerable stone building which has special acoustics that made it a favorite stop of the Grateful Dead during the band's heyday.
Last Wednesday evening, the Cameron Crazies set their sights on getting under the skin of the Princeton men's basketball team.
One Tiger, however, senior star Will Venable, defiantly faced them down even as the Tigers fell 59-46 to the fifth-ranked Blue Devils before a Cameron crowd of 9,314.
The chiseled 6'3, 200-pound Venable darted all over the fabled court, establishing himself as one of the more irritating visitors seen by the Cameron Crazies on a night when the program celebrated the 65th anniversary of the arena.
Venable, who looks menacing with his shaved head and grim expression, scored Princeton's first 10 points. At one point, the score was Venable 8 Duke 5.
The slashing forward, who also stars for Princeton's baseball team, scored 14 of Princeton's 18 points in the first half.
Early in the second half, Venable was sent crashing to the floor by two Duke players on a drive to the basket. As he lay face down on the court for a few minutes, it looked like Duke may have knocked their menace out of the game.
Instead, Venable got up, shook off the cobwebs and fought through a limp to stay in the game. As Duke pulled away to its double-digit triumph, Venable was pulled out of the game in the final minutes.
In recognition of an effort which saw him accumulate 21 points, three steals, three assists, and four rebounds, even the Cameron Crazies grudgingly clapped for Venable as he slowly made his way to the bench.
After a post-game ice session to help soothe his battered body, Venable said he hadn't felt the pain as he battled Duke.
"Once you're in the flow of the game, you don't think about that," said Venable with a half-grimace, half grin. "You don't think about that. I know I'll feel it tomorrow."
Amazingly, Venable maintained that his one-man show in the first half may have put Princeton at a disadvantage.
"It was nice because I got some lay-ups and I was able to finish," said Venable, reflecting on his first half performance which saw him shoot 5-of-7 from the floor and a perfect 4-of-4 from the foul line.
"But in terms of running our stuff, I didn't help out much. Even though I was getting lay-ups, we wanted to run our stuff and have better balance. I think in the long run that might have actually hurt us."
Princeton head coach Joe Scott, though, would beg to differ. "Looking at that stat sheet, he gives a lot to us," said Scott.
"I think he played really well. He's a senior and when we get into league play if I know that Will Venable is going to give me that 100 percent effort every single night then I think we're going to be in pretty good shape in the league."
Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski is glad that Venable is not in his team's league."I don't know the Ivy League that well, but Venable is a heck of competitor," said Krzyzewski. "I don't think that there can be a better competitor in that league."
Ever the competitor, Venable took no solace from the gritty effort turned in by the Tigers. "We just weren't tough enough," said Venable, a first-team All-Ivy League performer last season who is currently averaging 11.5 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.
"Some things we did run well, but it is important for us to be doing it the whole time. Tonight we just did it for a few minutes."
But even the Cameron Crazies would agree that Venable did good things all night last Wednesday.
