LONDON -- Leave it to a London cab driver to sum up the local interest in basketball.

Asked twice Sunday within an hour to take a fare from the Le Meriden Piccadilly Hotel in Central London to the Crystal Palace -- a destination which he had no clue where to find despite his 18 years of driving a taxi in London -- the cabbie had to ask why the sudden interest in the palace. When told it was to watch basketball games Sunday, he was even more confounded.

	Unless its soccer team is in town, Duke is able to eat in peace in London.

"Basketball?" the driver asked. "All I know is Meadowlark Lemon and the 'Trotters. I remember going once to see the Globetrotters."

Basketball in London is, according to Britball writer Mark Woods, somewhere above billiards and below snooker in terms of popularity. Woods, whose fan base reads British basketball's news source based in Scotland, said that it might be higher in terms of participation, but not much.

College sports don't resonate in the U.K. unless it's Oxford-Cambridge crew along the River Thames or on a Wembley rugby pitch. College basketball is, let's just say, a non-story here in London. Remember, this isn't mainland Europe where basketball is the hottest sport in the last five years (see: NBA all-rookie team). Britain isn't even going with the Euro currency fulltime yet, so getting basketball to catch on may take some time.

Duke basketball is about as recognizable an ambassador for the college game as one could find and the Blue Devils don't even register a blip on England's sports radar screen. Neither does Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski. He did get noticed during lunch at an Italian joint called Lorenzo's near the Crystal Palace. But the friendly "Welcome to England coach Krzyzewski," turned out to be from an American. A Duke alumnus, no less, traveling to see Duke.

"We can just play here," Krzyzewski said. "We're not the Rolling Stones or the Beatles here. Not that we would be anywhere, but this has allowed us to focus on us. We went out to eat last night and no one was asking to take pictures or sign this or that. Usually we have to put our managers up and guard us and last night they got a chance to eat."

Coach K jokes because he cares about the managers, but he's only having fun with the truth. No one outside of the Crystal Palace could care less if Duke was here or even if it signed New Jersey prep star Loul Deng, whose parents live in London.

"We'll do a story on him here soon, but that would be the first one because no one knows who he is," Woods said.

"England basketball is behind everyone else in the world because they are so crazy about soccer or football," said London Towers coach David Lindstroem, who is an American. "They're not educated at the younger level. I compare England to Australia 20 years ago when I coached there. The dads are telling their kids to play rugby or cricket. It took a while to educate the younger generation and now they're older and Australia is a player in the World.

"Some of the blame goes with the BBL (British Basketball League) marketing and some to the electronic and print media here who don't allocate the space to promoting basketball more. They think the fans want to read about football, and until they get over it, then England will fall behind."

But, for one night Sunday, maybe there is hope for the Brits.

Crystal Palace was packed, albeit with two-thirds Duke fans. But nonetheless it gave the Palace a real atmosphere. Apparently, there were only a few hundred fans for the London Towers-Thames Valley game the previous night. Close to 2,000 fans paid 12-20 pounds to watch the Towers beat Duke, 94-84.

Duke's heavy hitting alumni sat on the more expensive side of the court, of which two of the 19 Legacy Fund members were in attendance. (The Legacy Fund, which is chaired by former Duke player Grant Hill, tries to fully endow the men's basketball program. The rate is $1 million per member.) The parents of Duke senior Dahntay Jones and four friends were also in attendance, as Larry and Joanne Jones said they bought airplane tickets from their native New Jersey on the internet as soon as they found out Duke was going to London. "We don't miss a game, no matter where it is," Joanne said.

	“	We can just play here. We're not the Rolling Stones or the Beatles here. Not that we would be anywhere, but this has allowed us to focus on us. ”
		— Mike Krzyzewski, Duke head coach

The other side was packed with Duke students traveling abroad for the fall semester. While Duke is getting a headstart on the ACC and the rest of the country, these students were downright giddy that they were getting a sneak peak ahead of the entire student body that is on campus back in Durham.

There were nearly 60 students who had traveled from the surrounding London schools, Oxford and even Paris and Florence programs. They said that the majority of students who decide to study abroad choose the first semester because then the students miss fewer games. While there weren't exact numbers available, Duke officials said the student's claims are true, and that the numbers are skewed toward the fall for overseas studying for the same reason.

"You usually only miss the exhibition games and a few others during the first semester," said junior Greg Wolf, who is studying at Queen Mary's College in London. "You couldn't miss the second semester."

"It's wonderful because we're getting a chance to see what the freshmen look like (on the court)," said junior Kerry Marder, "and which ones are cute."

Teresa Tetlow, a junior who like Wolf and Marder was studying at Queen Mary's, even had a Duke decal tattoo on her left cheek. She had tucked it away in her knapsack and found it when she decided to go to Sunday night's game. She wore it on the Tube (read: London subway train), but didn't get a reaction from any other Londoners.

"We couldn't find any face paint in London," Tetlow said.

But Victor Jeffreys had some. Jeffreys actually flew in from Durham just for the games in London, missing three days of class unlike the basketball team.

"No problem at customs," Jeffreys said. "But no one wanted to put it on. I had some friends in Western Europe and said, 'If I come to London for the games will you meet me?' And they said, 'Sure.' They did."

Jeffreys didn't need the face paint to get noticed with his Duke-esqe fan's way of taunting opposing players, berating the referees and an Afro that probably blocked the vision of about three rows of seats.

Duke is so big with its alumni, if not the Brits, that when Legacy Fund director Mike Cragg spoke to them Sunday their numbers totaled 300 -- dwarfing the previous record of 180 in Europe for Duke president Dr. Nan O. Keohanne when she was across the Atlantic in June.

The first family of Duke basketball, Krzyzewski and his wife Mickie, gave the students a thrill when they visited with them -- Mickie prior to the first game and coach Krzyzewski before the tipoff of the nightcap Sunday.

The Duke students even got the sparse London crowd to match their wits when they started chanting late in London's 94-84 victory, "Five fouls, two points!'' when a Towers player fouled out. To which, the London fans responded, "What's the score!"

The Towers fans had the backing of a lone drummer pounding away during the game, constant music, a play-by-play broadcaster on the public address system and the entertainment of breakdancers during timeouts. That's right. Breakdancers. (Remember, "American Idol" was an English import of "Pop Idol" a year earlier. Perhaps, breakdancing will find its way onto a Fox halftime during the winter months.)

The P.A. announcer, named Rob, showed the understanding the game of basketball is still a work in progress over here when he corrected his announcement that London's Robert Youngblood had fouled out. Youngblood went back to the bench when "Rob" noticed he only had four fouls.

"My mistake," he said over the system to go in step with his running commentary. "I apologize. It was my mistake. Sorry about that."

When the game was over, "Rob" put an exclamation on this win for the London Towers and for English basketball: "A famous victory for the London Towers over the Duke Blue Devils 94-84."

The question remains: Will anyone notice outside of the Crystal Palace? And if so, will anyone care other than "Rob" and the Towers' faithful?

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.