Happy belated St. Patrick’s Day to one and all! If over the weekend you had moments where you thought you were partying like Darryl Strawberry on a warm Tampa night, then you might not remember the most fitting and insightful game of the NCAA tournament to date. By that I mean Duke’s barely nipping Notre Dame in their second-round matchup. Not only was it fitting that the Irish gave the hated Dookies a good run for their money the day before St. Paddy’s, but that game came once more to prove the point I have been arguing since the days of Midnight Madness, that Duke is not going to win the National Championship this year.
Now, you may be wondering why another article has to be written bashing Duke. You may even be one, of those Duke apologists that just chalk it up to good old jealousy and envy. Jealousy and envy it might very well seem like, but an insightful and well-informed basketball fan knows better. Duke, to put it mildly, exemplifies everything wrong and evil in college basketball. Hypocrisy knows no boundaries when it comes to the Duke basketball program, and to make matters worse, commentators such as Dick Vitale equate Krzyzewskiville with the reincarnation of Camelot, or at the very least Valhalla in mesh shorts and sneakers.
To begin with, the players, talented as they might be, are arrogant to a fault, as exemplified by point guard Jason Williams’ taunting gestures at Boston College guard Ryan Sidney in the closing moments of a game last season in Durham. Left alone, Williams’ actions were bad enough. But Mike Krzyzewski’s reaction was worse, failing to realize that his star point guard was the one at fault, not Sidney. He then proceeded to emphatically call Sidney an “asshole.” All of this action was vividly caught on tape, and yet not much was made of it, either by the Duke program or by our national sports press. This was not one isolated incident, but rather, a growing trend to try and create an image surrounding Duke basketball. The “spin cycle” begins with Vitale proclaiming on national television, on multiple occasions that Jason Williams is “one of the best point guards in the country, NBA included.” Additionally, Vitale boasts that Duke could probably beat the Chicago Bulls if they were to play each other. On both counts, I think guard Steve Blake and the Maryland Terrapins would beg to differ, as they have outplayed Jason Williams and the Dookies on multiple occasions in the past.
Another thing worth pointing out is that Duke is always heavily favored by the refs. The zebras have a tendency to help out the Dookies?just ask guard Jason Gardner and his Arizona teammates from last year’s Championship Game. Jason Williams thought Gardner’s back was a diving board, and the refs were all apparently simultaneously distracted by that one blonde Arizona cheerleader under the basket, because there was no call on that crucial play. Like the BC game, this was not one isolated incident, but rather a play emblematic of a larger trend surrounding Duke Basketball.
The “spin cycle” then turns into high gear when you take into consideration the success Krzyzewski has in recruiting, due in large part to the so-called Duke “Three-Year Plan.” Players can graduate with a degree from Duke University in three years by taking summer courses and thereby enter the NBA early and with a college degree. Not only would this be incredibly difficult for a regular student to accomplish, but a “student-athlete” would have immense time constraints due to travel and practices during the year. Forward Carlos Boozer, who is going to graduate at the end of this semester as a junior, played for the Under-21 USA Basketball Team in a tournament in Japan last summer, when he was supposedly taking summer classes at Duke. This bastion of the “perfect student athlete” is just as corrupt and immoral as Fresno State, but because of its image and hype, you will not find any sports commentators willing to address the subject.
On a purely basketball level, however, Duke still falls short of all the analysts’ expectations as well. No senior forward Shane Battier to hold the team together, no help down low for Boozer, no bench of note and with a cocky and arrogant Jason Williams running the team and not making free-throws, Duke, despite all the so-called analysts’ predictions, is just not as good as last year’s team.
Just like the last drop of keg running out on St. Patrick’s Day, Duke’s luck will eventually run out ? Go Terps, Jayhawks and Sooners!
