The trouble in College Park, Maryland, started shortly before midnight on March 31, minutes after the semifinals of the 2001 NCAA men's basketball tournament. The University of Maryland's team had just lost to archrival Duke in a close game marked by several controversial calls by referees. In addition to the students who had viewed the game on large-screen televisions set up in the basketball arena on campus, hundreds of students and other fans had watched it in one of the several sports bars located in a two-block commercial strip along Route 1, near the southeast tip of the Maryland campus. The Cornerstone, for example, had room for 400 patrons, who could watch the game on one of its 35 screens. The Santa Fe Café could seat another 450. One bar on the strip, Bentley's, had even erected a heated tent with TVs in its parking lot in order to make room for fans to see the game. Although many fans went home right after the game ended, dozens poured out of the Route 1 bars and headed east, in the direction of Fraternity Row, where post-game celebrations, complete with bonfires and firecrackers, had taken place the week before. On this night, however, the crowds congregated in many locations, including street corners closer to Route 1. Before the night was out, some 60 fires would be set at various locations in College Park.