You have to hand it to those North Carolina bloggers, they are classless in victory and they’re clueless in defeat.
Checkout The Fifth Corner after Duke’s victory yesterday. Actually, don’t bother….I’ll give you the highlights myself.
First this:
From what I read around the internet the crazies kept doing “N-I-T” chants as the game went on. Stay class Duke, stay classy! Everyone has a right to chant what they want, even more so when they can finally beat a team that has owned them at home four years in a row, but remember that pay backs are whatever they say they are.
So the crazies “have the right” to chant want they want, but then they’re “classless” for chanting N.I.T.? That’s it. That’s the chant that bothers him? Just a few days ago, Duke is playing in front of a Maryland crowd that chanted “fuck Duke” and “fuck you Scheyer” for the entire game, but this guy can’t handle “N-I-T?”
I don’t recall him writing any articles about how Tar Heels screamed “thugs!” at Maryland’s black players after the Terps upset them in Chapel Hill last year. As far as I can tell, the crazies are being kind…I’m not sure Carolina is even worthy of the N.I.T.
The funny part is, he made a good point about how Duke had lost their last four in Cameron. Doesn’t a win that breaks that streak allow for some leeway in the chanting? I personally would have chanted “Miss it, Deon!” all night long in honor of that guy who Roy Williams threw out of the Dean Dome. Oh and since Carolina bloggers like to blog about their four-game winning streak in Cameron, I’ll just remind them that Duke has won eight of the last twelve in Chapel Hill. Four in a row is impressive, but a .667 winning percentage ain’t so bad either. Let’s move on, because…
It gets even better.
And while we are talking about classy, nice touch by ESPN to have Erin Andrews dress in a Duke blue shirt, first time I ever seen that happen…
Wow, seriously? The game was so bad, this guy was really so concerned about the shirt Erin Andrews was wearing? I can imagine it now, ESPN brass getting together and thinking, “How can we really show our support for all things Blue Devils? I know, get me wardrobe!”
Maybe we should go back to the tape and checkout Dick Vitale’s tie, maybe it read, “I love my Blue Devils” on it somewhere.
But wait, there’s more:
and of course Mr. Vitale and his man love for Coach K has become so extreme it gets annoying as soon as he says the first thing about it.
Coach K love? Um, let’s think about for a minute. During Duke’s ass-whopping of a Carolina team, Dick Vitale had plenty of reasons for Carolina’s demise this season. Of course he laid zero blame onto Coach Roy Williams.
Somehow he can overlook that Roy’s players gave up on the season a long time ago and ignoring the fact that Coach Williams refused to adjust his team’s style, even though it was clear they couldn’t handle it.
Roy has done a terrible job this year (he has seven McDonald’s All-Americans), but Dick Vitale, the man who dreams of fondling Coach K in his sleep, not only had nothing negative to say about Roy Williams, he kept praising him for the job he’s done this season and how hard he was coaching while his team got rolled in Durham. Yes, but he ONLY loves Duke and Coach K.
Carolina fans…classless in victory, clueless in defeat. Enjoy the N.I.T., buddy.
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First off, great site…
I did write about the UNC incident when it happened. I also talked about Lawson’s drinking when that happened. My point about staying classy is that Duke had a great win (no one denies that and if they do they didn’t see the game), let it be, no?
The Erin Andrews comment came natural as I never saw her dressed up in one of the team’s colors, including when doing a Florida (her alma mater) game.
Lastly, the Vitale point. It’s not about yesterday’s game, but there is no way you can deny that DickieV will not come out with a “Duke” insert in most every game he does. It’s the last game of the season, anything he says about Duke just makes all the rest come back.
Love your comment about the “miss it Deon” all game long. Maybe you could have added someone blowing a conch there too? Oh wait, maybe not!
And I will enjoy the N.I.T. (if we are invited).
AEM
Comment by A_E_M March 7, 2010 @ 3:04 pmDoes Dick Vitale heap a ton of praise on Duke? Yes, of course. But he heaps a ton of praise on North Carolina too. He does that to almost everything college basketball…that’s because Vitale is a basketball fan masquerading as a television announcer. He loves this sh*t, especially the good things about college basketball…one of which is Duke basketball.
Like I tell anyone, I’ll mix up any ten Dike Vitale quotes about Duke/Coach K with any ten North Carolina/Roy Williams quotes and guess what…you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
During last night’s game, he mentioned John Boeheim three times last night. Why? Because John Boeheim is one of the better things about college basketball. Maybe you didn’t catch it because you don’t care about Syracuse or Jim Boeheim, so him talking about it won’t bother you.
But you do hate “the enemy” so when you hear him mention Duke, it turns your stomach (as it should). Of course there is nothing wrong with that. Just don’t pretend that he gives more love to the Devils than the Tar Heels. He throws a ton a praise at both and guess what…both schools/teams deserve it.
Comment by Rob March 7, 2010 @ 3:46 pmI don’t see how any UNC students or fans can really act like it was classless to chant NIT. First of all, they had several of their players wasting their time at the championship game, that they won, with a sign that read “where’s Dook?” I personally find it hard to believe that we are being attacked as classless when it is obvious that UNC has plenty of things to grab onto as classless, like Rasheed Wallace’s record, Lawson’s incidents, McCants acting like his time at UNC was time in prison, and just the general behavior of UNC fans towards all other teams and their fans. I would like to see UNC in the CBI this year and that is just because a team with no heart doesn’t even belong in the NIT, but in a tournament where we can really laugh at them as a guide for all future players to see what it talent does without passion.
Comment by Ty March 7, 2010 @ 4:50 pmI live in upstate NY so I know plenty about SU and Jim Boeheim.
I still truly believe (and I would not care who it is) that Dick Vitale talks about Duke more than any other program in games that don’t have those teams. I have no problem about the praise he gives Duke, UNC, Kentucky (this year), UCLA (in years past) and on and on if they are part of the game or at least doing a game of that conference.
And Vitale himself has said it during broadcasts “people don’t like me talking about Duke, but I will talk about them”.
You can check my site I call each and every team in the proper way, I do not attack opposing players. Heck, while I didn’t like what Coach K said about Gerald Henderson being the victim in the incident with Hansbrough, I was one of the few on UNC web boards to understand where he was coming from. My comment about the chant was more about the student body enjoying the moment of having several (four I think) Seniors playing their last game than thinking about the “NIT” for us, especially after having had 2 Sr nights ruined. Nothing else. And if next year we win at home and do dumb chants I will be on our fan base just as much, I am a fan that enjoys what I have, good or bad, not what others have. I am alos a lot older than most bloggers, maybe that is why I am this way.
Heck I am one of the few people (outside of your fan base) that might think Vasquez shouldn’t be the ACC POY.
You do not know me and I don’t know you, but I will tell you this: I had a heart attack while leaving where I am now, the doctor that saved my life is a Duke graduate. (Jokingly) this is the first year he hasn’t raised his rates for visits after UNC goes to Durham (lol). The day after he saved my life he told me “I prayed for you even though you are a Tar Heel” (I had been taken to the Hospital in a UNC tshirt).
Comment by AEM March 7, 2010 @ 5:12 pmFirst, I agree with the K/Henderson situation. When it happened, I went through the typical fan reaction. First I denied it was on purpose, then I blamed Coach Williams for having his starters in there and I blame Hansbrough for trying to score with seconds to go, then I supported just a one-game suspension.
But like an adult, I eventually watched the tape again and again during the off-season and realized that it was done with malice and Henderson should have been suspended longer. In fact, this blog has given plots of props to Hansbrough for the way he acted right after the fact and later on when he accepted Gerald’s apology.
As for Vitale again, I challenge anyone to go watch five Dick Vitale games. Watch all five games and write down every time he mentions Duke and write down every time he mentions another team (that is not relevant to the game being played. Stop telling what you think, prove me wrong.
$100 if Vitale mentions Duke more than any other school.
Comment by Rob March 7, 2010 @ 5:38 pmOk, tell you what, I will take on the challenge and next yr we can do a joint blog post called “The DickieV Watch” and we will both count the times he praises Duke vs other squads with the winner getting a drink of choice the time we meet up, fair enough?
AEM
Comment by AEM March 7, 2010 @ 5:43 pmSounds like a good deal.
Comment by Rob March 7, 2010 @ 5:44 pmI have this conversation with my friends who are unc fans all the time. Yes Dick Vitale talks a lot about Duke, but the thing is if you can stand to listen to him broadcast any game he says the same thing about whatever school he is currently at. He simply replaces Duke with unc, Notre Dame, kentucky, whatever school’s campus he is on that his is favorite team. And my response to the tarhole fans who cry about Dickey V’s unyielding love for Duke is to take a look at one of Roy’s books. HIs book ‘Going Home Again’ has a damn Dick Vitale quote ON THE FRONT OF THE BOOK. The man is a whore and follows the creed ‘love the one you are with’
Comment by NC Blue Dux aka cbros March 7, 2010 @ 5:49 pmAs far as the unc fans go, after finding out that the average attendance for their home games went down about 3,000 this year that is all I need to know about their allegance. I could care less if they thought the N-I-T chants were classless, the fact that they don’t even go out and support their team when it is needed the most tells me who the classless fan base is.
This is what I had to about Duke and Dick Vitale two years ago:
http://bigdukeballs.wordpress.com/2008/02/24/responding-to-duke-hate/
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?
Comment by Rob March 7, 2010 @ 5:52 pmI have come to the conclusion that all college basketball fans either love or hate Duke. There is no middle ground. For whatever reason, no matter how various or reasonable they are, people are on one side or the other when it comes to Duke. However you can’t say the same thing about 99% of college basketball teams. Aside from 3-4 schools that I absolutley hate I could care less one way or another about most teams. But when Duke comes into the topic people are of the opinion that they love Duke or hate the very ground Duke people walk on.
Comment by NC Blue Dux aka cbros March 7, 2010 @ 6:07 pmOn the Dickie V comments…I think last night was the first Duke game I watched where he was on the air that he didn’t refer to the genius of Dean Smith, or as he calls him “Michaelangelo”…UNC gets plenty of praise from Vitale during non-UNC games…probably just as much as Duke does in non-Duke games, probably the same with Boeheim…and Roy too over the years both w/ Kansans and UNC… and even this year, with a very unsuccessful team (which has its fair share of talent and was playing poorly even before the injuries, i.e. bad coaching IMO) Roy has gotten his fair share of praise from Vitale
Comment by Bludvlkg March 7, 2010 @ 7:24 pmAs a Tar Heel fan, it pains me to no end to agree with this article. I;m not even sure we deserve an NIT bid. Here’s something you might folks might enjoy.
http://jockpost.com/hey-duke-fan-ya-feelin/
Comment by mike mc March 8, 2010 @ 4:58 pmIt certainly was a great feeling to watch a 32-pt whipping, but it can only be meaningful if this is the beginning of the swing back to Duke (i.e. bringing a title back to Durham, before UNC gets yet another one).
Comment by Rob March 8, 2010 @ 5:02 pm