Filed under: Hate Duke
Spencer Hall from the Sporting News jumped on the bandwagon about seven years too late. That’s right, Spencer hates Duke. I sure hope he doesn’t start a trend. Luckily for us though, Hall breaks it down for us, so we can examine why one grown man hates one particular group of college kids over another.
He breaks it down into percentages:
- Forty Percent because they’re really, really good
- Twenty-Five Percent because of Dick Vitale
- Twenty Percent because of flopping
- Fifteen Percent because they are smart and rich
Of course this is nonsense. He should have just saved himself the five minutes he wasted writing this article and just linked to the web site, The Truth About Duke. Let’s break this down the right way. Why Duke is really hated:
- Eighty Percent because Duke wins. Yes, 80%. If Duke won ten games a year, no one would give two shits about Duke. The Blue Devils over the last 25 years has won more games, more titles, appeared in (far more) final fours than anyone else. They’re constantly the #1 seed, yet they keep falling short in the tournament recently. If I wasn’t a fan, I’d be tired of them too. Hell, I am a fan and I’m kind of over it.
- Ten Percent because so many of Duke’s stars have been white. No, America is not suddenly racist against white people and trust me, I have no pity if a few fans want to curse out the whitey. However, I have a theory (and it’s only a theory). We see these white kids and we think, wait, this guy isn’t better than me. I could kick his ass and steal his girlfriend if I saw him in my school. Of course that’s not true. Then there’s the double standard; if Reddick trash talks, he’s being a cocky prick. When a Rashad McCants does it, he’s just keeping it real. Look at any list of ‘hated’ Duke players; Laettner, Hurley, Ferry, Wojo, Collins, Reddick and now Paulus…you see a common thread? It becomes a yearly tradition of trying to figure out who will be the most hated white player on Duke.
Of course what little proof do I have for my theory? Just look at any comments section or message board when the subject matter is Duke. What’s the one thing white men do to demean another person, they call them gay; not Sheldon Williams, no Grant Hill or Elton Brand, but Wojo, Collins, Reddick, fucking fags!
- The final ten percent is because they’re on TV every other day. Because of Duke’s success and because their fan base is spread throughout the country, almost every game they play appears on TV. If I wasn’t a Duke fan and I only saw my team on TV 5-10 times a year, this would make me sick. Great example, Notre Dame football appears on TV every single game. Hell, they have their own major network. They get their own ‘exception’ for getting in the BCS. It makes me sick and I hate Notre Dame. When they fail, my life just seems a little bit brighter. So yes, I get the Duke hate. The difference is, I don’t make up small petty reasons for my hate…
…which brings us back to Spencer. Any other reason that Spencer Hall comes up with is crap. Again, its people just trying to make up reasons to justify their hate. It’s okay to hate Duke, but you don’t need to come up with faux reasons (mainly, hating them for doing things all teams/coaches/fan sections do). Let’s breakdown his other ‘reasons’.
- Dick Vitale hearts Duke. Yes, he does, but Dickie V loves everything college basketball. He loves Duke, Carolina, the ACC, the Big East, Indiana, ‘The General’ Bobby Knight, UCLA, USC…everything! (Look at the photo, he’s with Mississippi State fans, but he only loves Duke!!!). I could take ten quotes from any ten games and mix them up with ten quotes Vitale says at any Duke game, and guess what, you wouldn’t be able to tell a difference.
Now does Vitale heap MORE praise on the Blue Devils? Let’s go ahead and say, for the sake of argument, yes he does. But eliminate your hate for a moment and think, doesn’t Duke deserve this? They’ve been so successful, yet they’ve run a clean program. Is that something to hate? Shouldn’t that not be something basketball announcers should celebrate? Of course Duke isn’t perfect, by no means. Just to name a few, we’ve had a couple of DUI’s, Coach K has been wrong over the years, especially in regard to the Laettner stomp (he should have been thrown out), the berating of the school newspaper, and over the years he’s gotten more distant from the media.
Take a look what else has happened over the years? The two teams that Duke beat in the early 90′s for their first two titles, UNLV and Michigan, both went on probation because of the actions of those players and those teams. Right now, you have a coach like Kelvin Sampson who is on the verge of destroying not one, but two proud programs. You have a great team like Memphis, whose players have been arrested six times in the past year (remember, it doesn’t mean guilt), yet here’s this jackass writing about hating Duke. Where have you’ve been the last five or so years? Shouldn’t you hate cheating coaches and player’s that beat their girlfriends?
- The flopping. This has obviously become the most recent reason for hating Duke. Let’s examine this for a second. Every team takes charges, and every player on every team flops. This has been part of the game since the bottom of the peach baskets were cut out. Does Duke do it more? I don’t know, since I’ve never done any real research. Yet, neither has anyone else. Until someone does a game-by-game study, I’m not buying it. I watch Memphis/Tennessee Saturday night and between the two teams, they ended up on their asses over a dozen times trying to take charges. Sometimes it was called, sometimes it wasn’t, and a few times I didn’t agree with the call.
Paulus is the man now associated with the flop and I will not argue that he doesn’t flop. The question I have is, does it work? Meaning, does he get the call? In the last Maryland game, I counted four times when Paulus ended up on his ass by either taking a charge, or going down when a defender tried to block his shot. Of those four times, the official called a charge, one single time. That’s it. Again, that’s just one game.
This clip posted by ‘Truth About Duke’ during the VCU game last year that everyone always points to is an obvious awful flop, but people tend to forget the two most important details about this clip. A) There was no foul called. B) Duke lost this game.
This clip (and this game) was a great example of when a player decides to flop instead of taking the hit like a man, they’re going to get beat. This clip is a microcosm of why Duke lost this game…sorry, why VCU whipped the Blue Devils in the first round of last year’s tournament. The Devils played the game with no heart and VCU played like men.
Personally, the flopping issue goes to the question of, does Duke get all the calls? Obviously, I say no. This reputation in my mind took off during the Duke National Title Game against Arizona. Two nights earlier, Duke had rallied from 22 down to beat rival Maryland in the semis. The crowd was filled with Arizona fans, Maryland diehards, mixed in with the usual people who tend to cheer for the underdog, so it was heavily favoring the Wildcats. Despite the fact the fouls were called evenly, every foul called on Zona (or perceived missed call on Duke) was heavily booed. Hell, even Billy Packer said this, “The calls really seem to be going Duke’s way.” Mr. Packer said this at the 17-minute mark in the first half when Arizona had two fouls and Duke had two fouls. That’s right, with three minutes played, and two fouls called on each team, Packer had declared that Duke was already getting the calls.
Throughout basketball history, the good teams have always been accused of getting the calls. When Coach K was still trying to establish his program in the early 80′s, he whined to anyone who would listen that Dean Smith and UNC got all the calls. Was he right then? I doubt it. Good teams have good players that are taught good defense. Certainly that doesn’t mean that refs don’t make mistakes and yes, Duke has had games when the calls just went their way (FSU a few years ago, Clemson and the clock last year), but that’s happened to every team. Against Wake Forest, 18 of the last 19 fouls got called on Duke?
There’s two honest questions that need to be asked when talking about the flopping?
- Because Duke has a reputation of being great at taking charges, do the refs give them the benefit of the doubt in those situations?
- Because Duke has become associated with the word flop, wouldn’t the refs know this and not give Duke the calls?
Again, this argument does lend itself to the bigger picture and I always like to take it back to the ‘defensive player of the year’ awards. Duke tends to win this a lot (nine times in fact); King, Wojo, Shane, Sheldon, etc. Are all these awards justified? Even as a Duke fan, I would say no. This award unlike any other is so subjective. In any given year, there are probably two dozen really great defenders who could win this award. There’s no doubt in my mind, that the people who decide this, do elevate a Duke player simple because of A) the uniform and B) the past winners. Is this fair? Probably not, but that’s the facts of life. Good players on great teams will always gets bigger props than good players on smaller teams.
Finally, the last reason Spencer gave was because Duke is smart and rich. This is such a prime example of the ‘bullshit’ reason someone comes up with to justify. This was his money quote:
“To the basketball-watching public, it might be more compelling to watch teams whose players are hell-bent on futures in basketball. If they don’t perform, they might lose more than a game — they might lose their livelihoods. Is that a little sick? Sure.”
Yes Spencer, this is sick. Most of the time when people use the rich and spoiled line, they’re talking about the Duke student body. The NBA draft is two rounds. 99.9 percent of the kids that play college basketball will never touch an NBA court. Personally I think it’s pretty ignorant of Hall to assume that every black kid not attending Duke is living in poverty, and if they don’t succeed in basketball, then they’ll be back living in the hood.
Guess what Spencer, all kids, black or white, are given a free ride to go to college, some choose to take advantage of it, some don’t. I’m not going to pity some kid who decided it was the NBA or bust (yes, I’m talking about Maryland’s zero graduation rate).
Again, for most fans, the issue with the wealth and privileged comes from the perception of the Duke Student body. Now we’ll ignore the fact that most kids who go to college are either middle-class or up (no matter what the college), but I love the idea that because Duke kids are smart, they must be spoiled assholes.
In Will Blythe’s book, “To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever: A Thoroughly Obsessive, Intermittently Uplifting, and Occasionally Unbiased Account of the Duke-North Carolina Basketball Rivalry” (which I highly recommend reading), Blythe talks about why most people in the state of Carolina love UNC, but not Duke. The obvious reason (which is he right about), most of Duke’s students do come from the Northeast, so they’re consider outsiders. However, I believe he gets things mixed up when he throws in politics. He talks about how Carolina’s Dean Smith is a strong liberal and Coach K is a full-fledged conservative. The mistake he makes (and this is how I read it), that these two coach’s political beliefs somehow reflect or mirror their schools/basketball programs.
This of course is just wrong. Dean Smith was a liberal, a great one at that, but UNC (filled mostly with kids from Carolina families) is Bush country. North Carolina voted for Bush twice, Dole, Bush Sr., Reagan twice and of course Nixon twice. Now hear me out, I’m not about to accuse every student at UNC of being the next Tom DeLay (yes, I know he’s from Texas), but remember it was Blythe’s political argument, not mine.
Now there is no doubt that Coach K is a conservative (and I as liberal would disagree on a lot of stuff), however, Duke player’s are the liberal types, even after they become millionaires. Reddick was known liberal, Shane Battier campaigned with Bradley in 2000 and Grant Hill is one of many former Dukies that have come out in support of Obama.
Again, I can’t take a whole fan base and declare it to be one way or another, but for all the hatred Duke students take, without them, other student sections would still be sitting twenty feet behind the basket. Because of the fame the Cameron Crazies have created over the last thirty years, more and more schools are trying to copy them by getting their student sections closer to the action and in front of the cameras. This doesn’t mean Duke has the best fan base, it just means without them, we would never see the other ones. Sure some of the chants the Crazy’s do can be stupid. After doing this for so many years, not every chant is going be gold. But next time you’re in the student section chanting ‘air ball’, don’t forget, that started in Durham.
In the end, sometimes no matter what the argument is, there’s no right answer. A lot of people hate Duke because of what happened in 1995 and whether Coach K should have taken the loses when he sat out during the 1995 season?
Most people know the story, after rushing back too early from back surgery, Coach K was forced to sit out the second half of the 1995 season (after his wife told him she would leave him if he didn’t rest). Once in ACC play, Duke fell apart. After a 9-3 start, Duke went 4-15 under Pete Gaudet. Duke haters point out that Coach K decided this after the fact, even though it is well established that the AD made the decision right when Coach K decided to leave.
The question I have to ask though, if Gaudet went 15-4 instead of 4-15, and then Coach K had taken the wins, wouldn’t these same people be riding Coach K for taking wins that didn’t belong time him, especially whenever he comes up to a milestone? Based on the idea that Coach K did this to protect his record, then we have to assume that all these people are pissed off that Lute Olson isn’t getting credit for the wins/loses for this year’s Wildcat team.
Again, it’s okay to hate Duke. They win, they’re on TV a lot, I get it. Even I can joke, isn’t it funny how Coach K’s commercials last longer in the tournament than his teams do?
Hating is fine. In fact, most Duke fans don’t mind it. I actually find it funny and I do enjoy knowing that people hate Duke more than they love their own team. Quick, the guy behind ‘The Truth Behind Duke’, name his school?
It’s Maryland. Shocking, I know.
17 Comments so far
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I think you are accurate in a lot of your musings. The TV exposure issue is one that has a little bit more depth than simply exposure. It is an issue of the the creation of thousands of Duke fans that have no affiliation with the school what so ever. The wide spread TV coverage of private institutions with good sports teams (Notre Dame and Duke are the two most obvious examples) makes a lot of sense due to their alumni being more spread through out the country than a State’s school alumni. However when this greats thousands of fans who have no reason to be fans other than watching a few games on TV, well that creates a back lash from the mainstream.
Comment by Stuart Chescheir February 25, 2008 @ 4:10 amLike wise the white factor has a problem in it as well that you missed. Another private institution made an incredible run of Basketball dominance at about the same time Coach K became solid. However its players were predominately black (talking Georgetown by the way) and it did not receive the seemingly ridiculous coverage that Duke did. Perhaps this was bias, perhaps this was because of the UNC-Duke rivalry, perhaps this was a dozen other things, it is simply a commonly observed parallel, for those of who that are born in Chapel Hill anyways.
I think the political belief stems from the idea of the Coaches and the Institutions as a whole. While it is easy to argue that UNC’s goal to serve the people of North Carolina is little more than a facade, it does make one school look the public school for the people and the other look like the private school for the north east’s elite who want warmer weather.
Obviously the biggest reason that anyone hates Duke, or UNC, or UCLA, or Kentucky or UConn is that they are good and they commonly beat everyone else, but there are reason that Duke gets special treatment on the hate list. Remember it is not about what actually happens, but rather is perceived to happen in the court of public opinion.
PS. You forgot the Duke-VT game two years ago when the Refs added a second to much to the clock.
Not a bad post. im a carolina grad. one thing is a little incorrect however:
“This of course is just wrong. Dean Smith was a liberal, a great one at that, but UNC (filled mostly with kids from Carolina families) is Bush country.”
the state of north carolina is, unfortunatly, Bush country, but Chapel Hill and the area extended is not. It was, in fact, the senator Jesse Helms who once said that Chapel Hill should have a fence around it so the animal don’t get out of the “liberal zoo.”
we also caught a lot of flack from the right wing media post 9-11 when our professors had sit-in’s protesting the war in afghanastan (and subsequently iraq).
Blythe’s inability to differentiate b/tween chapel hill’s political beliefs and the state may be his fault and thus not yours but i thought it was worth point out.
my take: hating duke is, as you point out, very much like hating the yankees or even tiger woods and it is very very fashionable right now. that said, i still hate duke.
ill give you that McCants was questionable in his behavior during his career though i do feel like he toned it down when Williams got there. That said, in the last 2-3 years we (UNC) really havent had a single player who talks a ton of trash or mixes it up after the whistle like Paulus does. he’s really been over aggressive this year. if anyone should be nasty with the opposite team its Hansbrough but he takes his beating and keeps on playing.
good luck the rest of the season. you guys will need it.
Comment by Heel jhj February 25, 2008 @ 5:05 amGood post. But I think Grant Hill is gay.
Comment by Brad O February 25, 2008 @ 5:17 amMissing one key point: I don’t hate Duke. At all. I’m trying to explain why Duke is hated. But don’t let me stop you from getting huffy at a innocuous piece. People feel that way whether I write about it or not.
Comment by Spencer Hall February 25, 2008 @ 11:34 amI’m not use to getting comments from writers I write about, but welcome Spencer-
I don’t think I was “getting huffy” and of course I don’t think your words are going to create a whole new legion of haters, but it just seemed like the Sporting News, a legit magazine/web site, was jumping on a bandwagon that’s already gone ten laps around the track. This is fine of course, but I just didn’t feel like the article said anything that hasn’t already been said three dozen times before, half of which by Gregg Doyle, who once loved Duke, now hates Duke (along with everything else) because he’s learned that hate gets him more web hits.
I can imagine the pitch meeting to the editor-
SH: Hey I’m going to write about how I hate Duke.
EDITOR: Hey, that’s original and refreshing.
Hey, I’m just one guy with an opinion,
Anyhow, to address the other comments…great point Stuart that because Duke is on TV a lot, they get a larger fan base. I didn’t think of it that way. However, I would disagree with the fact that, because a certain fan has only seen Duke on TV, that that somehow makes them less-of-a-fan. I lived in Durham as a kid, but that doesn’t give me the right to declare “I’m the better fan.”
As for Georgetown and their black stars in the early 80′s, I would probably have to agree with you. Although I can’t personally recall. TV was so different back then, only a couple major networks aired games on the weekend and ESPN was still getting their footing when it came to college basketball. It’s not like today where you can find five games on per night. Back then when Georgetown was dominating, I lived in Durham, so mostly all I saw was regional games that featured either Duke, UNC or State.
And finally, dear old Heels fan. You also make solid points. I tried not to stereotype all UNC students, but obvious I didn’t do a good enough job. My point with McCants is simply there’s a different attitude towards black and white athletics…maybe it’s white guilt, who knows. I’m sure if you did a poll of the most hated players this season, while I know Paulus would be at or near the top, I’d be willing to bet Tyler Hansbrough would be there too.
As for your team, I would agree this batch of Tar Heels is tough to dislike. I can’t think of any issues or off-the-court problems, and the way Hansbrough handled the Henderson/broken nose situation was pretty classy.
Good luck, we’ll see you in two weeks in Cameron.
Comment by robioland February 25, 2008 @ 12:06 pmFor those of you from other regions of the country reading this who aren’t that familiar with the history of Duke basketball imagine a team with 3 or 4 Joakim Noahs on the team every year for 20 years, starting to hate them yet?
Lots of teams have had their fair share of White players as well, the really good White players tend to gravitate to the same handful of schools, Duke being one of them. It’s not having White players that gets you hated, it’s having overrated White players that the media fawns over for no good reason. Laettner-legit, Hurley-legit no doubt, but Jesus, Wojo made first team all-ACC when he averaged something like 9pts and 5 assists per game (he did lead the league in slapping the floor) the Sporting News called Wojo the MOST OVERRATED PLAYER IN THE HISTORY OF COLLEGE BASKETBALL, Collins-not even worth discussing, Redick- a very, very poor man’s Mark Price (and not half the player). Paulus is not hated as much because he isn’t overpraised, he is a very good college point guard, no more no less.
Duke being hated is really not the Blue Devils fault. People who are overpraised incessantly and fawned over by media types as if they walk on water are bound to get some backlash. People are just tired of hearing Duke’s players, fans, and coach given undeserved praise to the point of vomit-inducing nausea. It turns Wojo into a great player, Redick into POY candidate. MichaelJordan was never praised in college as much as your AVERAGE Duke starter. We all watch the games and can see that the players aren’t as good as advertised (I’m not saying they aren’t good because they are good, just not the second coming)
Maybe Billy Packer was noticing all the calls in the Duke/Arizona game that weren’t called like when Jason Williams rode the Arizona PG’s back for 2 sec and wasn’t called for what would have been his 3rd foul in the 1st half. Why do I remember that so clearly? Because it was the most outrageous non-call I’ve ever seen watching sports, worse than the Tuck rule, 5th down, and the ’72 olympic gold medal game put together
‘Against Wake Forest, 18 of the last 19 fouls got called on Duke?’
When a team is behind it tries to foul to extend the game.
Flopping belongs in soccer not basketball
Comment by TheIconoclast February 25, 2008 @ 7:38 pmIconoclast, really, it’s their own fault?
All these ‘overrated’ players, sorry, overrate ‘white’ players don’t deserve praise? With all these ‘so call’ overrated players, Duke has manage to win three championships, a bunch of ACC titles, a ton of games and landed in more final fours and #1 seeds than any other team. All with overrated players. I guess in your little world, only NBA stars are allowed to be considered good college players. Wojo can’t be good unless he averages 18/10 per game. I guess in your basketball world, being the heart and senior leadership of an ACC championship team, that missed the final four by one game, isn’t worth anything. He didn’t deserve the defensive player of the year award because his 82 steals (second all-time at Duke) really didn’t mean anything. Why? Because the Sporting News said so.
As for Jordan, maybe you don’t remember, but Jordan got plenty of praise as soon as he stepped on Carolina’s court. He was the ACC freshmen of the year and he was the PLAYER OF THE YEAR in 1984!! He left school early to become the third pick in the draft. Who besides you was overlooking Michael Jordan?
As for Reddick’s POY, the last time I checked, I don’t recall the college ‘player of the year’ only going to players who are guaranteed to be NBA All-Stars. Although it was becoming clearer that JJ was not going to be quick enough to be a legit threat in the NBA, you have to be ignorant to say he didn’t deserve the player of the year award his senior year.
Forget all his career accomplishments for a second. Despite playing first-rate competition, Reddick was second in the country in scoring behind Adam Morrison and was the star of one of the best teams throughout. Duke doesn’t win 20 games that year without him. He laid 41 on #2 Texas. In the end, he never won a title, but that had more to do with Coach K’s inability to develop a bench.
Comparing him to Michael Jordan’s college career is stupid. Why? Because it was a different era. Back then, players stayed for at least three or four years. Look at the talent level that remained in school (including Jordan) at that time; Olajuwon, Bowie, Perkins, Barkley, etc. If Reddick played in that era, he would have just been another white boy hanging out waiting to take deep jumpers.
Things were different when Reddick was a Duke. A player like Jordan would have left after one year, if he even came at all. Hell, LeBron James probably would have been the POY in college two years ago if kids went to college like in Jordan’s day. But they didn’t, James, Melo…the players who would have been dominating college basketball, would have taken all the hardware. But they either didn’t come to college, or didn’t stay.
As for your foul argument…give me a break. Yes, I’m sure Billy Packer foresaw that Jason Williams would have gotten a break, so that’s why he said what he said three minutes into the game. It’s people like you who just try to justify, that are so stupid. Yes, I remember that no-call and you’re absolutely right, he should have been called. It was obvious. In fact, there was a second foul he committed in the second half that wasn’t called. But can you honestly say that Arizona didn’t catch a break on any calls? I’ll point you to the 10-11 mark in the second half where on three straight possessions; Boozer was hacked, Battier was fouled, then Boozer again. None were called! None. However, since Williams’ no-call was out in the open court, then it’s somehow more outrageous than Spygate.
In that title game, where Duke got all the calls, Arizona got called for 20 fouls, Duke 17 and that includes the late fouls that Arizona did to force free throws.
Speaking of intentional fouls, please don’t comment on things you don’t know about. If you had watched the Wake game, down the stretch, Duke only fouled on purpose four times before calling off the dogs at the :56 mark. Of those 18 fouls, 14 were not intentional. If it will make you happier, Duke fouls: 14. Wake 1. The difference, I don’t blame the refs. I blame Wake Forest for playing a hell of a game.
Like I said above, good teams play good D and good teams know how to get fouls called. Carolina of the 80′s was excellent at it, Duke overtook them. Guess which team leads the ACC in free throws (by a lot)? North Carolina. Are they just getting all the calls? Or maybe they’re a pretty good team.
Sometimes bad fouls don’t get called, just like the Jason Williams one in the ’01 title game. Sometimes fouls or penalties shouldn’t be called; Miami’s pass interference in the ’02 title game against Ohio State and just like Battier’s foul on Haywood with 1.2 second left chasing a loose ball at mid-court.
Again, you’re just another guy looking for excuses. The only person that called Duke the ‘second coming’ was you. It’s people like you who tend to put the golden dome around Duke, blame the media for putting the golden dome around Duke and then when you find out Coach K curses like a drunken Sailor, you say, see…they’re not golden!
Comment by robioland February 25, 2008 @ 9:22 pm[...] The other day I talked about an article written on the Sporting News by Spencer Hall. The article was a simple piece about why [...]
Pingback by Why Hate? « Big Duke Balls February 26, 2008 @ 6:23 amThis is a great article, glad to see something contrasting the highly biased and ignorant ramblings on TruthaboutDuke, i coulda guessed he was a UMD fan. Funny how he talks about the fans being unclassy when Maryland fans have yelled F!@# you JJ and thrown a glass bottle at Boozer’s moms’ head. And i love this part on his manifesto about “illegal” handchecks:
‘The officials focus must continue to remain on eliminating illegal contact and rough play in the low post, off the ball, in cutting and screening situations, and during hand-checking anywhere on the court.’
So how on earth does Duke get away with this? Clearly, there is no answer. ……….
………
If the guy writing this article would have graduated duke instead of Maryland, he would have caught the simple grammar in this sentence like I did.. Let’s look at it again.
The officials focus must continue to remain on eliminating illegal contact and rough play IN THE POST, OFF THE BALL,… AND DURING HANDCHECKING
It’s saying handchecking IS LEGAL you dimwit, but pushing and other roughing during a handcheck is uncalled for. Handchecking is fine though and EVERYONE DOES IT!
Maryland fans hate duke more than they love maryland. Thats fact.
Comment by Dboy187 March 22, 2008 @ 7:45 pmDuke will always be criticized for its little mistakes while schools around it never get criticized. Why? because thats not what the hype is about. Hating duke is fun.
On TAD, they talk about how duke always outscores the little guys by 30 or 40 and say its unclassy to the smaller teams. This to me is HILARIOUS because look at UNC ever since Roy Williams has been there. Pushing it to 100+ every chance he gets even when theyre up by 20 or more, why slow down?
Roy Williams is a disgrace as a coach. Look at the first round NCAA tournament win over a PLAYIN winner Mt. St. Mary’s. They’re up by 30, reserves in and still pushing the score as high as possible. Then the entire bench, Roy right in the middle, is up and laughing at the reserves when they scored on Mt. St. Mary’s starters. This to me is more disrespectful to any small team(especially a team who has never won in the tournament) and shows the true class of UNC. They looked as though it was the championship game. Dissing the opposition with a smug “we’re better than you” appeal on their faces the entire game. As if it was scrimmage. And their only excuse was “Mt. St. Mary’s was supposed to be a great team so we were happy about winning”
Happy to win, something that’s never not happened for a 1 seed.
Real classy, Roy. It’s cool though, I think as long as Coach K is around at Duke you can pull off whatever stunts you want because Duke hating is just that much more fun.
Comment by Dboy187 March 22, 2008 @ 7:54 pmOn TAD, they talk about how duke always outscores the little guys by 30 or 40 and say its unclassy to the smaller teams. This to me is HILARIOUS because look at UNC ever since Roy Williams has been there. Pushing it to 100+ every chance he gets even when theyre up by 20 or more, why slow down?
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What the hell are you talking about? Show me anywhere on TAD where that is “talked about”
Comment by truthaboutduke.com April 4, 2008 @ 5:22 pmOh by the way, for this page where I guess you’re getting some stuff:
http://www.truthaboutduke.com/antidook1.php
it says THANKS TO THE UNC ALUM WHO WROTE THIS on the top of every page.
Comment by truthaboutduke.com April 4, 2008 @ 5:27 pmI read the article, but there’s really not much you can do but laugh. Again, the writer’s basic point is to point out all these things that Duke players, students/fans and Coach K do wrong, even though it is the same things other teams/players/fans/coaches do…but he holds Duke to a higher standard (because the media fawns over them).
- Duke runs up scores (nobody else does)
- JJ was cocky (nobody else ever is?)
- Laettner stomped on UK player’s chest (nobody else has gotten away with something before?)
- Coach K curses at refs (Nobody else does?)
Remember, Coach K wrote a book about leadership and does commercials about it, so he’s not allowed to curse? There’s no logic.
Also, it’s tough to argue with someone who fails to argue with truth and facts. Example: The writer claims that Coach K left the team in ’94-95 when he knew the team would start losing and he was faking the pain in his back, and that Coach K told the NCAA not to give him the loses?
Of course the writer doesn’t offer an legit proof. He can choose to (and he has decided to) ignore what everyone who was at Duke at the time has said about it, or maybe K was faking it when he laid on the floor of the plane on the street back from Hawaii. I guess the AD is simply lying when he said he decided who would get the wins and loses, prior to a single game being played.
If the Truth About Duke reminds me of anything, it’s Fox News. It’s that simple. You have a point of view, you surround yourself with people who agree with you, then you make claims, leaving out facts that would counter your point and then repeat it over and over again until it’s considered true.
Comment by robioland April 4, 2008 @ 6:02 pmFox News? I’m not the one supporting a friend of Jerry Colangelo and Liddy Dole. Of course what I link to is rather biased, but my credibility is important. I like to link to reputable sources. Which leads to..
The “Manifesto” does throw a lot of things out there.. While I believe and agree with almost of it, I no longer host it. Also tired of people assuming I wrote it
And if makes you feel better, I still have nightmares about the Clemson collapse. But if you want to believe we care more about Dook, go ahead
Good luck with this blog..
Comment by truthaboutduke April 5, 2008 @ 8:58 amHey Truth-
Yes, Fox News. I’m not accusing you of being a Republican. This is basketball, not politics. I could care less about Coach K’s politics, just as Conservative Carolina folks overlooked Dean Smith’s liberal views back in the day.
The point is, the tactics used by ‘Truth bout Duke’ are the same as Fox News. You have an agenda, so facts that support that agenda come out, while facts that would negate that agenda are left out. Remember, the writer is often mad about things, that EVERY SINGLE TEAM/COACH/FAN does. But somehow Duke is held to a higher standard, thus when Coach K curses, it’s more wrong than when his coach curses.
Duke gets all the calls, right? Obviously it can’t be because they’re good, well coach, play good defense. No, that can’t be it. Instead, it’s a mass conspiracy between the NCAA, refs and Coach K to make sure Duke wins. Yep, that’s got to be it. Of course, UNC has led the ACC in free throws the past two years, so can I assume that the NCAA, refs and Coach Williams are conspiring to give UNC the title? Or maybe because I’m rational, I believe the Tar Heels are a good team, that’s well coached.
Also, Fox News likes to say things like, “people are saying” without quoting someone. It’s a great way to say what you’re thinking, but contributing it to someone else. Truth About Duke uses “Everyone knows” instead.
“Everyone Knows” that Chris Duhon’s mother moved to Durham and got a job. And? Oh wait, I get it. Everyone knows that the coaching staff must have cheated. I see how it works.
We are all bias. We love our team and hate the other ones. My point is, leave the excuses behind. I love when the writer claimed how much he just hated the Duke players, proceeding to name a handful off. Of course, these players were all recruited by other schools, including UNC and guess what, if Hurley, Laettner, Reddick or Paulus landed on UNC’s roster, you’d LIKE THEM! It is just that simple. You hate them because they were A) on Duke and B) they made Duke good.
It would be comical, if it wasn’t so sad that. Maybe one day this summer I’ll respond to each and every charge…if I get bored.
Comment by robioland April 5, 2008 @ 12:09 pmIt’s not that Duke gets calls – it’s that they get no-calls. They were getting blown out by Miami in an almost fairly reffed game. Paulus flopped on what should have been a 3-pt play…In the second half, lol, they were allowed to tackle Miami bball players, throw them on the ground…Disgusting. How could you watch a team that gets bailed out by the refs constantly…
Comment by Dukeblows February 8, 2009 @ 9:12 amYes, you’re so right, never, ever, in the history of Duke basketball, has a foul ever better called on a Duke player. The pesky refs, it must be tough for them, knowing their evil plot to ‘give’ Duke 25+ wins a season has been discovered by the masses. Thankfully for that Miami game, the refs weren’t afraid to break the rules to give Duke yet another undeserved win.
Man I wish I could have been there at halftime, Duke down by 13, hanging out with the panic refs, who were shocked to see Duke down at home.
Ref #1 – “Dude, what are we going to do? Duke’s down by thirteen.”
Ref #2 – “I don’t know. We have to do something, Coach K is going to yell at us.”
Ref #1 – “I know.”
Ref #3 – “I think I just crapped myself.”
Ref #2 – “Don’t panic. Don’t panic. It will be okay.”
Ref #1 – “How is this going to be okay? What the hell?”
Ref #3 – “Coach K is going to eat my grandchildren, I’m having a stroke.”
Ref #2 – “Relax. I got it. All we have to do is stop calling fouls on Duke.”
Ref #1 – “Oh yeah.”
Ref #2 – “And we can just call a bunch of fouls on Miami players.”
Ref #3 – “But, but, but…”
Ref #2 – “What?”
Ref #3 – “But won’t people notice that Miami NEVER commits fouls, while Duke only fouls.”
Ref #2 – “Hey, we can do what we want. What will anyone do about it?”
Ref #1 – “Let’s do it.”
Here’s my question for “Dukeblows.” I’ll go ahead and give you the benefit of the doubt on the one play you brought up. Paulus flopped and the call went against Miami? Sounds resemble. Paulus can flop with the best of them, but my question is…in all the games you’ve seen, all the college basketball games you’re watch, you’ve never seen any team get a bad call during that game? The Canes have never benefited from a bad call? Seriously, get a life.
Comment by robioland March 3, 2009 @ 8:12 pm