The first time Syracuse played in front of the Cameron Crazies it got crazy

Syracuse (15-11, 6-7) steps onto the famed Cameron Indoor Stadium floor tonight (7:00 p.m. ET / ESPN), facing conference leader Duke (23-2, 12-1) for the sixth time since becoming an ACC member in 2013-14.

The Orange even have the bonus of a little momentum for the quick road game turnaround following the exciting buzzer-beating victory Saturday over SMU in the Dome to make it two straight wins, while Duke took care of now third-place Clemson also Saturday at home.

Perhaps only if the 'Cuse were to stun the heavily-favored Blue Devils (96% on ESPN's matchup predictor) would that ending classify as being along the lines of the unexpected conclusion to the first time the teams met in Durham on February 22, 2014.

The chaotic ending to the final 10 seconds plus of regulation took almost 20 minutes to complete, and ended with a historical first for Syracuse's Hall of Fame coach.

The 2013-14 SU season started as one to remember, and ended as one to sort of forget

We have always blamed the Nike jinx for upsetting what was a school-record 25-game winning streak to begin the 2013-14 season for the No. 1 ranked Orange, a team that featured three future NBA players - Jerami Grant, Tyler Ennis, and Rakeem Christmas in the starting five, and another, C.J. Fair, who came close (eight NBA preseason games in two seasons).

But three days before traveling to fifth-ranked Duke, in game 26 of the season at home against Boston College, Nike's contract with the university allowed it to designate the game as one it could ask the team to wear a new uniform style (the Nike Hyper Elite Dominance model) it was looking to merchandise.

The result was a disaster both sartorially with the mismatched orange jersey/blue shorts look, and on the hardwood with a 62-59 overtime loss to the lowly Eagles who came into the game with a 6-19 record. So Syracuse headed to Durham 25-1, and seeking to sweep the season series with the Blue Devils after a thrilling 91-89 OT win in front of a record crowd of 35,446 in the Dome three weeks earlier.

An official's call changed it all

As we originally wrote in covering Syracuse's first experience of playing at Cameron Indoor Stadium
, the game between the two top-5 ranked teams in front of an overflow crowd of nearly 9,400 which reacted emotionally good/bad at every whistle, lived up to its pre-game hype and placement in ESPN's primetime Saturday night broadcast window.

The game was tied six times in the second half with four lead changes, and Duke led by two with 10.4 seconds left when Fair drove to the basket for the tying layup, only to be called for a charge, sending Jim Boeheim flying onto the court and ripping off his jacket, assessed two technical fouls and his first ejection of his career, and for minutes the non-stop cacophony of the home crowd was deafening.

Duke ended up converting seven free throws in the final 24 seconds, four of those coming after the spectacle of Boeheim's ejection, to turn a one-point lead into an eventual 66-60 win, SU's second straight defeat.

Although the Orange would defeat Maryland two nights later on the road in a gut-check victory, the team ended up dropping four of its last six games to end the season with a whimper and a second-round defeat to underdog Dayton in the NCAA Tournament.

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