DURHAM, N.C. — It's time for the Battle of the Blues. North Carolina and Duke face off Saturday in one of the most anticipated matchups in college sports. With ticket prices reselling for thousands of dollars, students have their own way of getting into the game. 

K-Ville, a village of tents named after retired Duke Men’s Basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski, started 39 years ago for students hoping to get a better seat in Cameron Indoor Stadium. 

“There was a group of students who just wanted to be first for that classic Tobacco Road rivalry game. So they pitched a tent, and then as soon as they did, other people followed,” said Oliver Hess, a head line monitor of K-Ville and senior from Florida double majoring in public policy and art history.

Students who wish to participate in tenting must follow strict guidelines that include tent checks, participation rounds and sleeping outside for weeks. 

“A lot of people put school first, but I don't know, sometimes it's basketball first too,” Hess, whose parents met while tenting at Duke in the '90s, said. 

The tenting process takes place in waves, with black, blue and white phases. The black tents start first in the season and require more people per tent. These tents are also given closer seats to the court. 

"Even if you don't like basketball, tenting is just such a unique cultural thing. It's just like something you can't miss when you're at Duke,” said Emma Fleischman, a senior from New Hampshire and fourth-year tenter studying electrical and computer engineering. 

Duke's Men Basketball Coach Jon Scheyer with Emma Fleischman at her tent this year. (Courtesy: Emma Fleischman)

Students are allowed to go inside if the temperature dips below freezing, but if it’s warmer than 32 degrees, a designated amount of tent residents must remain in K-Ville. Contests including a body paint competition, a history test, best tent decorations, attendance and more allow tents to earn points for a better line up into the game. 

“You have to be the best, the most dedicated in order to go into the UNC game first,” Hess said. 

Some tenters have been participating for years, learning tricks of the trade to make their time more enjoyable in K-Ville. Layering clothes, portable hand warmers, lights, cardboard boxes and palette flooring are just some tips Fleischman has for newbies. 

“Duke students, they just try to find a way to optimize and overachieve like any way that they can. So this is another outlet for that,” Fleischman said.

This tenting season was one of the most competitive ever, with over 220 groups trying to snag one of the 80 black tent spots. According to KVILLENATION’s website, there are 130 tents in K-Ville this year. 

“It’s so special, it's just the fact that the student section has such a, such a privilege to be so close to the court, to actually have an impact on players, to be in a space that's so small for the noise that we make as students can impact the game,” Hess said. 

Players sometimes stroll through K-Ville, like Neal Begovich and Philadelphia 76ers rookie Jared McCain, who even visited Emma’s McCain themed tent in prior years. McCain passed out his merch to Fleischmann and her tent mates.

Former Duke guard Jared McCain visiting Emma Fleischmann's Mojo Dojo Casa tent last year. (Courtesy: Emma Fleischman)

“That was, that was like one of my favorite parts of just being out here in K-Ville,” Fleischman said.

This was the first year K-Ville has gotten snow since Coach K’s last season in 2022. It was something that made it extra memorable for students like Fleischman’s tent mate, Lilly Chiavetta, whose tent "Kon on the Cob," a reference to the ”It's Corn” meme, is named after Small Forward Kon Knueppel. 

“I built a snowman. So that's really fun… when it snowed my freshman year, it was also a very good memory because we built a 6-foot-tall snowman on East Campus. That was really neat," said Chiavetta, a senior studying electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering from Wilmington. 

Despite all of the long cold nights, students say this tradition is worth it. It not only brings students together but unifies them under one common goal — beat UNC. 

“What Cameron does for the students of Duke is incredible, because it doesn't matter if you are from China, if you grew up two miles down the road in Durham, everyone has a place in Cameron Indoor Stadium,” Hess said.

Duke and North Carolina tip off Saturday night at 6:30. The rivals will meet again on March 8, this time at the Smith Center on UNC’s campus.