12 reasons everybody hates Duke
by Chris Chase, USA TODAY Sports
Why do the haters love Duke? Here are the 12 biggest reasons the Blue Devils are college basketball’s public enemy No. 1.
12. The officials love them. Cameron Indoor Stadium has a mystical quality that turns charges into blocks, hacks into acceptable contact and stops the space-time continuum on three- and five-second calls — but only for the guys wearing white. The power can transfer to other locales, too, such as the 2001 Final Four when Maryland’s Terrence Morris got his fourth foul 14 seconds into the second half and Jason Williams wasn’t called for his fifth, sixth, seventh or eighth foul two nights later in the NCAA championship game.
11. Floor slapping. Part pump-up, part glory boy show-off, all lame and contrived. Taking a cue from how they officiate the game, refs probably see Duke players slap the floor and don’t believe there’s any contact.
10. Coach K says so. After a contentious game against Dean Smith and North Carolina in 1984, Krzyzewski told reporters the refs had a double standard when working UNC games. Nine years later, Krzyzewski and Smith faced off in the FInal Four. After an argument with the longtime UNC coach, Coach K stormed back to the bench and, according to John Feinstein’s A March to Madness, made the following request to his assistants. “If I even for one minute start to act like [Smith], don’t ask a single question. Just get a gun and shoot me.”
Let’s hope they didn’t read this 2010 piece by Mike Lopresti detailing the similarities between Coach K and his biggest rival. They’re basically the same person, aside from Krzyzewski’s penchant for cursing and Smith’s fondness for scotch.
Hyperbole aside, the big takeaway is that Coach K once gave a tacit endorsement of hating any coach for being the whiny architect of a title-winning team on Tobacco Road.
9. Dick Vitale. No duchess has ever loved a duke as much as Dick Vitale. The team’s biggest fan didn’t earn the moniker “Dukie V” by accident. He treats each visit to Durham like it’s a pilgrimage, professing his love … [For more on The 12 biggest reasons everybody hates Duke, click here.]
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