By Paul Gotham
(originally posted April 3, 2010)
Before we start, I thought it necessary to tell you the title of this piece did not come easily. My first idea was : “All The Reasons To Hate Duke.” I planned to include the recent picture from the Indianapolis Star as a way to lure Duke-Hater Nation, with all its bravery that comes from sitting behind a keyboard, to the site. It could have been a banner day on The Pine. Readers would abound looking to join in the ridicule only to find a trap as I professed my allegiance to the denizens of Cameron Indoor Stadium.
I could not find it in myself to use such bait-and-switch tactics. I’ll leave that to other sites that put scandal before substance.
I amused myself last weekend during the Duke-Baylor game. While commercials played, I refreshed the Twitter account (yes, in my middle age I now follow friggin’ Twitter). As the end of the game drew near, the anti-Duke venom piled up like roadside trash after the spring-time melt in the northeast. Throw in a little snow blackened from the road grime, and you have an appropriate visual.
Thing is, all of these young writers think they are being original by saying things that I have heard for years…no, decades. “Duke gets all the calls.” “Coach K bullies the refs.” La la la la la la la la la la la la. Here’s hoping these neophyte scribes have better stuff in their portfolios because cliche is NOT a word you want used to describe your writing.
One bad call or 22 offensive rebounds decided that game?
Nonetheless, tip-off is just a few hours away. A trip to the Final Four can mean so many different things to so many different programs, but for Duke it is an opportunity to reap disdain.
Duke even has some writers pleading for people to reconsider their ways.
Nolan Smith‘s story is a good one. DHN can only roll their eyes. This article should fuel their enmity. Make sure you watch the video in this piece. You won’t want to miss Derek Smith “posterizing” MJ.
Surely, there will be those that want to jump in and remind Duke fans what happened the last time the Blue Devils played the Mountaineers. I remember that game well.
Seth Curry only fed the fire of DHN. Imagine, big, bad Duke going in and stealing Liberty’s best player like that.
If that’s not enough, the story of how the Plumlee brothers landed in Durham will have everyone up in arms.
I have no problem with Butler. In fact, I would welcome the Bulldogs winning the championship. Maybe then, people might start to realize that state-of-the-art facilities are not necessary to be successful (I wanted to tie this to a local school district that constructed a multi-milllion dollar athletic facility only to close an elementary school and stop its AP program because of lack of funds). The Brad Stevens story is also interesting. Pedigree is not a necessity when it comes to good coaching.
Butler should be careful though. With success comes scrutiny. The Bulldogs might want to avoid any future clock malfunctions.
Michigan State winning the title has its merits. Tom Izzo has more than proven himself as a great coach.
But make no mistake, when the ball goes up tonight, I will be cheering for one team and one team only: The Duke Blue Devils. Born out of a Marine Corps sergeant’s allegiance, I started cheering for Duke when the names of Kenny Dennard, Mike Gminski, Jim Spanarkel, and Gene Banks roamed the hard wood. Dad attended Duke. He didn’t finish because he was drafted into WWII. He saw active combat in the Philippines, and when he returned to the States, going back to school could not tame his restlessness.
I learned early that relying on a zone defense can hurt. At least that’s what happened when “Goose” Givens lit up those Blue Devils for 41. That game took a year or two from the old man’s life, but it gave me a team for a lifetime.
I was at Plattsburgh State in ’86 when Duke lost to Louisville. Dad and I commiserated with a phone call after the game.
Dad died in ’90.
I like to think the old man had a hand in the ’91 and ’92 titles. Hopefully, he enjoyed those from heaven.
Tonight, Duke makes its 15th Final Four appearance. 15 is one more than the number of players from Duke in the NBA – a list the Blue Devils are at the top of with UNC and UCLA. Oh, and Duke’s graduation rates trump most.
Tonight, Coach K and team try to take another step.
Let’s go Duke!
You’ll have to excuse me. Time to slap the floor.
I don’t like that Jon Sheyer character.. Throwing elbows.. and that sneer of his.. I don’t like that sneer !!!
Haha.
Good to hear from you Joe. This week’s Who Am I? was in your wheel house.
https://pickinsplinters.com/2010/03/31/who-am-i-march-31-2010/
Duke played a helluva game tonight. Brian Zoubek has been absolutely huge for the Devils. Everyone talks about the Big 3, but the biggest improvement for Duke has been the play of Zoubek and Lance Thomas. Both guys have been huge of bottles of Windek, especially on the offensive glass.
The Plumlee brothers have certainly added a level of toughness that has been lacking on recent Duke teams. But Zoubek and Thomas have given this team an element that has been an Achilles Heel on Blue Devil teams in the 2000s – the ability to rebound. Both are exceptional on the offensive glass and it was evident tonight against West Virginia. The second shot 3 pointers were absolute DAGGERS.
But I am with you… Go Duke!!
Smitty
Great call. Duke’s season turned on a dime in the Maryland game when Zoubek grabbed 17 rebounds and scored 16 points. Since then the floor has opened and the Blue Devils have taken steps toward becoming a complete team.
Casey —
As much crap as I may have given you in the past about Duke (it ryhmes with “puke”, etc), I truly respect their program. They do it the “right way” … with bright kids who are also great players (real student athletes), a clean program, etc. Monday night, they will face a team that can say the same thing … so it will be a great night of COLLEGE basketball. I’d love to see Butler get their first title, but if they don’t, I can certainly live with Duke getting their 4th.
As you know … they start hating you when they’re jealous 😉
Coach K posed an interesting question in his press conference: “Will this be the first NCAA (men’s basketball) championship played between two private schools?”
How much of the Duke hate is generated by the Cameron Crazies?
I am a Duke hater through and through. I respect the program. I respect that the students get the best seats at home games (instead of other schools burying their student sections behind the basket or on an upper level and giving rich alumni the best seats in the house). I respect that they recruit well-rounded STUDENT-athletes as opposed to most high profile programs (especially in the Big East).
Despite all these good qualities that come out of Cameron Indoor Stadium, I cannot root for this team. They are the Yankees of college basketball. They are the evil empire. Maybe it’s the fact that their mascot is a devil, or maybe it’s the fact that Coach K takes himself WAY too seriously:
https://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Coach-K-calls-unflattering-newspaper-illustratio;_ylt=AlyoEDAHQVEs7m.NGoQzu6Y5nYcB?urn=ncaab,231887
“My seven grand kids didn’t enjoy looking at that”…take it easy Mike
“I thought somebody doodled. Actually, I thought I looked better. But it was kind of juvenile. Not kind of, it was just juvenile. You know, my seven grandkids didn’t enjoy looking at it. That’s not Papi.”
ZDubbz? How is he taking himself too seriously? He made fun of himself. Right? Doodled? I am sure he could have used some technical language if he wanted to really get serious.
Never knew your dad attended Duke. Now I know where your passion for the Blue Devils comes from.
I hate to simplify this, but people hate those who are successful. I also think a lot has to do with the lack of success in football. Call it unrelated, but Duke basketball is thrusted into our televsion sets every winter. The only correlation people have with Duke is basketball. So their success becomes a bit magnified. Michigan State’s football team is mediocre and plays about 2-3 nationally televised games each year. They are mildly successful from year-to-year. Why doesn’t anyone have the same animosity for Izzo and the Spartans? Maybe because he hasn’t won many of those Final Four appearances. But I ave reason to believe it’s more because we’re able to associate Sparty with something else and not get that over-indulged feeling that non-Duke fans get with Coach K.
Don’t know if that makes sense.