I probably know more about Cooper Flagg than the entire state of Maine. Except for his mom, of course.

I’m a Press Herald intern this summer and a junior at Duke University studying public policy and journalism. But this winter, I became a Cooper Flagg expert. I memorized all of his double-double and ACC Rookie of the Week games, watched every episode of “The Brotherhood Podcast,” and stalked his mom’s social media accounts.

Why would I need to memorize the headline and issue number for Cooper Flagg’s feature as the cover athlete for SLAM Magazine? Because I wanted to see him play on our home court against our biggest rival.

Athletic events are free for Duke students, but the student section at Cameron Indoor Stadium, where Flagg and the other Blue Devils play 20 games a year, can only seat 1,200. To solve that problem, Duke doesn’t have a lottery like other schools. We tent.

The tradition of tenting began in 1986, when a group of students decided to line up in front of Cameron to secure good seats. The students called their tent city “Krzyzewskiville,” after the men’s team’s iconic coach. Nowadays, it’s just K-Ville.

Everyone who wants to watch a game can participate in the tent-based meritocracy system. Except for the UNC game, tents are on a first come first-served basis, with students lining up as early as the night before or morning of a game. For most games, students bring lawn chairs and blankets to camp out in K-Ville, which is the outdoor lawn in front of Cameron.

The tents are patrolled by line monitors, who are selected through a rigorous process testing their own basketball knowledge and dedication to being Duke basketball’s biggest fans. They also get front-row seats to every basketball game.

At least one person must be in the tent at all times, even if it’s raining or snowing.  The line monitors call random “tent checks” over a loud siren, and any tent found to be vacant loses its spot. You are given an hour of grace after each check, but that does not stop line monitors from calling them every hour from 2-5 a.m.

For games against our archrival, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, tenting is extended for up to eight weeks, depending on the season. But first, students have to pass a “tenting test” due to increased interest in the game.

This year, more than 200 groups — or 41% of the student population — expressed interest in tenting in 12-person groups for the UNC game. Only the top 80 tents would be guaranteed a seat at the game.

So I spent my winter break learning everything I could about Flagg, his family in Maine, his basketball career and his NBA dream — a dream set to come true when the league’s draft takes place Wednesday night.

A MOST IMPORTANT TEST

To prepare for the test, my all-female tent named ourselves the “Rachel Baker’s Dozen” — after the Duke men’s basketball general manager — and strategically divided up studying material, assigning a season, game and player to each member.

I volunteered to study Flagg’s facts, stats and personal life story.

This should be easy, I thought to myself. There’s so much information about him out there.

Big mistake. I overlooked the fact that this freshly turned 18-year-old budding superstar was probably going to make up the entire test.

But if there are two things Duke students are good at, it’s cramming and making Excel spreadsheets. So, I got to work, spending Christmas and New Year’s making my dad quiz me on all there is to know about the Newport native.

After we returned to school for the spring semester, we spent the night before the test studying in a dorm common room, covering the whiteboards with numbers and quizzing one another on different team members’ favorite protein or pro team.

Just like finals week, every single possible study space on campus was filled with students studying.

The next evening, Rachel Baker’s Dozen anxiously arrived at the practice court where the exam would take place, feeling like we were severely underrated by many of our male friends because “we don’t know ball.”

In a last-minute effort, my friend Jaclyn and I stood in front of the “Duke in the NBA” wall, frantically creating mnemonic devices so we could remember alumni Kyrie Irving and Zion Williamson and their respective NBA teams. 

We arranged ourselves in a tight circle and listened to the line monitors read out the test instructions to a room as quiet as an Econ 101 final: Leave any question you are unsure about blank. You will be penalized for incorrect answers.

Once our time began, we ripped up the test booklet, throwing pages around and filling out the roster and schedule. Next, we whispered answered questions about hometowns, athletic awards and fast facts, careful not to let the team crowding next to us overhear. Then, came the obscure questions:

What was the color of Neal Begovich’s senior prom date’s dress?

Draw the Sion James Foundation logo (well enough to convince us you know what it looks like). 

According to Cooper Flagg’s mom, Kelly, what time was he born? Bonus: What time was his brother, Ace, born?

I looked at the other members of my tent: “Listen, I’m not 100% sure, but his mom posted something on his birthday (Dec. 21) that said ‘2:47 a.m.'” We wrote it down and decided to let that question be our one uncertain answer.

Having only answered 60% of the test, we felt confident that we might perform better than groups who guessed on a lot of questions. But we had to wait for an email from the line monitors.

THE RESULTS

A couple of days after the test, result emails from K-Ville came in waves. As tents received their placement, you could hear both wails of sadness and shrieks of excitement across the dining hall.

My phone dinged.

“Ladies, We are tent #79,” texted our tent captain, Scarlett.

We barely passed the test. I started jumping up and down, hugging my fellow tent mates around me. Glares shot at me across the dining hall from others who still hadn’t received an email.

A week later, we pitched our two-room tent with a front yard that overlooked the tennis courts. Tents in K-Ville are often decorated to match their punny names, such as “Sion National Park,” “Neal or No Neal” and “Capture the Flagg.” We decorated the outside of our “Rachel Baker’s Dozen” tent with baking decor and signs.

Our tent was really a compound. We had sleeping bags, cots and arts and crafts to prepare for the next few weeks of student life. Shoes were forbidden inside, and food was to be eaten in the front half of the tent. A utility bin held our most important device: a vacuum.

We created an Excel spreadsheet that assigned shifts for the tent based on class schedules and extracurriculars. Even though one person was required to be in the tent during the day, K-Ville was always active with tenters enjoying the fresh air doing homework, eating lunch and playing beer pong.

The night before the game, we were treated to a pleasant surprise: a dinner with Rachel Baker. Scarlett, a Chapel Hill native but lifelong Duke fan, hosted a dinner at her home with food catered from Mediterranean Deli. Yet, she was just as surprised as we were when Rachel walked through her front door.

Immediately, we tried to pry answers out of Rachel about the team and the upcoming March Madness tournament: What is the team like when they’re not practicing? Who hangs out the most off the court? Are they nervous for the tournament?

One of my friends asked if she knew what time Cooper Flagg was born, to see whether we had been right. “Let me text Kelly,” Rachel replied.

After five minutes, she checked her phone: “2:47 a.m. You were right.”