Florida Gators
Duke
Cameron Crazy: Gators Brace for Blue Devils, Boozer & Bonkers Environment
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
DURHAM, N.C. – It's been nearly 27 years. That's a lot of water under the bridges along Tobacco Road.
The difference in the circumstances of Florida's last road basketball game at Duke versus the Gators' pending house call there Tuesday night, however, would have been unfathomable when the two programs last shared the court at historic Cameron Indoor Stadium.
On Dec. 9, 1998, Billy Donovan brought his meteoric-rising Gators, unbeaten through five games, to face the third-ranked Blue Devils and their packed roster of seven McDonald's All Americans. The game was billed as a measuring stick for Donovan's rapidly ascending UF program, which had taken the recruiting trails by storm and rattled some blue-blooded basketball cages along the way.
How did the Gators measure up? They didn't.
Duke handed Florida a 116-86 beatdown, scoring the most points ever against a UF team. Take that, Billy D. Now go back to your football school.
We felt invincible going up there, but they spanked us pretty good, recalled former UF guard Teddy Dupay, now 46, but then a standout freshman on the team that went up against the likes of Elton Brand, Shane Battier, Will Avery, Trajan Langdon and Corey Maggette. I just remember Maggette doing pull-ups on the rim the whole second half.
Ah, but things changed. That UF team went on to reach its first NCAA Tournament under Donovan and advanced to the Sweet 16. That Duke team played for the national championship, but lost to Connecticut. The following season – just 15 months after that rout at Cameron – the fifth-seeded Gators and top-seeded Blue Devils met again in the 2000 NCAA Tournament's round of 16 at Syracuse, New York. Duke was ranked No. 1 and the field's No. 1 overall seed.
Florida won 87-78.
Things have escalated since. For both programs.
[Read senior writer Chris Harry's Pregame Stuff setup here]
Fast forward to present day. That line of students (a.k.a. Cameron Crazies) sprawled across the hallways of this 85-year-old relic of an arena and camping outside in the rainy, near-freezing temperatures were frothing at the chance to see their unbeaten and fourth-ranked Blue Devils (8-0) get a crack at the 15th-ranked Gators (5-2) in their ACC/SEC Challenge matchup on their home floor.
That would be, of course, the reigning NCAA champion Gators.
They're going to be fired up for us, UF junior forward Thomas Haugh said. We'll be fired up for them, too.
It was UF – anyone remember? – that stole Duke's Final Four thunder last March in San Antonio, by rallying from 12 points behind in the second half to defeat Houston for the crown; the same Houston that just 48 hours earlier stunned the Blue Devils with a comeback from 13 down with four minutes to go (nine with just two to play) to send Cooper Flagg on his NBA path one game early.
Now, Duke wants what Florida has. Think about that.
While at it, think about this: In the nearly three decades since that last Cameron call, Duke has won three national championships and been to seven Final Fours; Florida has won three national championships and been to five Final Fours.
So, when sizing up the two leagues and picking these ACC/SEC matchups, the folks at ESPN knew exactly what they were doing.
We work pretty hard to get into opportunities like this where you get to coach at places like this and compete against really good programs, UF coach Todd Golden said. You want to make sure that [we] enjoy and kind of take a moment to appreciate the opportunity. But after that, if you don't get locked in, it could be a long night. So, you want to make sure you're fully focused on the right things. I think we'll do a good job of that.
It's amazing that these two programs have played only twice – in the 2016 Coaches vs. Cancer and 2017 PK80 Invitational – since that epic UF upset in the 2000 tournament that marked the program's first victory over a team ranked No. 1.
And it's as if that 30-point loss was the start of something.
We were undefeated and felt invincible, but that was good for us. The spanked us pretty good, recalled former Gators guard Teddy Dupay, now 46. They were absolutely loaded, which is always the hardest part about playing Duke. They always have really, really good players.
Such is the case again in 2025-26. The Blue Devils may have the best player in the country in 6-foot-9, do-it-all power forward Cameron Boozer, the son of former Duke standout Carlos Boozer, but Tuesday also will have the built-in advantage that comes with opponents being awestruck when playing basketball royalty in their castle for the first time.
I heard the arena is not that big. It's loud, said UF junior Urban Klavzar, who learned all about Cameron (listed capacity of 9,314) even when growing up playing basketball in Slovenia. I think the fans are really close to the court, so it's going to be really fun to play in that environment.
That's what the Gators thought back in '98 as well. They had a pair of McDonald's freshman too in Dupay and Mike Miller. Center Udonis Haslem, another rising star, was their classmate. They were the new kids on the collegiate block and came in confident.
They left bruised and with perspective.
There were places much louder than [Cameron], but the fans made the difference, Dupay said. They choreographed and synchronized everything. And they were clever about it.
Cruel, too. UF starting point guard Eddie Shannon, who had lost his eye to a degenerative condition the previous summer, was greeted with a sign that read, There is no 'i' in Shannon. Seriously.
The game was tied at 23 nine minutes in when the blue wave struck; a 40-18 run over the final 11 minutes of the half. When it was done, Avery had set a school record with eight 3-pointers (on 10 attempts), with Langdon adding 20 points and Magette 19 and nine rebounds. Duke shot 50% for the game, nearly 70% from the arc (16 of 23) and pounded UF on the glass 46-32.
That was the closest large double-digit game I've ever been involved in, Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski said afterward, handing the visitors a back-handed compliment of sorts. In fact, I don't know why [the margin] was that much.
Donovan was more realistic.
This is why we needed to play a game like this. Hopefully, our guys will understand that if you fall asleep against a good team this is what happens, Donovan said. It's just one game, but to be the kind of elite team we want to be, we have to play a team like Duke wire to wire for a whole game.
The Gators were the most elite team in college basketball last season, but this is '25-26 and they're doing some searching. They need to shoot it better, take care of the ball better and defend the paint better.
Florida is not expected to win this game (the Gators are 9-point underdogs), but if it can do some of those aforementioned things a little better in Cameron, it can do them anywhere.
You don't have to be afraid to fail in this game, so this should be welcomed by our group, because we've been a team that — uniquely for our program — has had all the pressure on us up to this point this year, Golden said. Hopefully, that loosens us up a little bit. We can go play with a little more freedom and not worry about making shots. Just go in there and just try to play hard.
And have fun in as fun an atmosphere as there is in the game.
Or as Dupay put it, Throw those new guys to the wolves and see what happens.
Hey, it worked before.
Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu. Find his story archives here.
