After that, it is Duke's fair weather fan base which is very marginal up here and if Duke had a bad year would drop off like a rock.
Are you high? How do you classify a Duke fan as "fair weather" --- if they weren't a fan in 1994-1995, the last time Duke missed the playoffs? Duke's fanbase may be deserving of many of the names it is called and the malicious words spewed at it, but fair weather? I'd love to know where you even came up with that? Please, pretty please, explain further since personally, this comment just shows you spew words without having a clue.
Regarding attendance and not drawing well, let's take a look the last few times Duke played at MSG:
1. Duke - Michigan State at MSG November 15, 2011 - attendance of 19,979 (many duke fans were there - I know bc I was there - but as this was a big tourney and Coach K's big record breaking win, I'll disregard this one temporarily)
2. Duke - Washington at MSG December 10, 2011 - attendance of 15,525 (but I bet those were all washington fans, right? - did we ever draw 15,000 last year at MSG?)
3. Duke - St. John's at MSG January 30, 2011 - attendance of 19,353 (by far our highest attendance that season...the syracuse game drew 14,440...the PITT game drew 14,514...the UConn game drew 13,652).
In addition to these games, Duke has played at the Izod Center the last few years as well which is a tougher draw esp. bc it's not easy to get to from the city....let's see how they did there:
1. Duke - Butler December 4, 2010 - attendance of 14,215
2. Duke - Temple December 8, 2012 - attendance of 12,157
Let's look to Duke's worst season in recent memory - 2006-07 when they went 22-11:
1. Duke - Gonzaga December 21, 2006 at MSG - drew 19,528
2. Duke - St. John's February 25, 2007 at MSG - drew 17,283 (and we know that wasn't because of us...and Duke was only ranked #17 at the time).
Care to retract or alter your statement, MCN? Duke is the BEST draw at MSG...even better than Cuse. And you wonder why Coach K would be for the tourney in MSG? It'd be a HUGE advantage for Duke, with only Syracuse even remotely comparing to the amount of Duke fans there.