Why was Everyone so Happy to see Duke eliminated?

By the TSB Staff

 

Partially for the same reasons everyone hates the Lakers, Yankees, New England Patriots and Notre Dame: success and all of the media coverage and attention it brings. This publicity in turn attracts annoying bandwagon fans that give the team’s genuine fan base a bad name. On a second level, people hate Duke for the same reasons they despise the Pats and ND: unfair playing field.

Many resent the fact that the Irish get their own exclusive television contract and that they are the only team with all of their home games televised. Many people feel the NFL has not been tough enough on the Pats with the Spygate scandal. In Duke’s case, it’s the way the Eastern Seaboard Programming Network whores the team and Coach K. in its coverage.
 

Then there’s the elitism factor. Two of my best college basketball-watching buddies are chairmen of the Chicago Carolina Club. Obviously, these are extremely biased consultants, but who better than a North Carolina die hard (one guy’s email is actually uncgrad@….) to explain the rationale for hating Duke? They, who refuse to spell Duke as anything other than dook, told me that Duke is pretty much a safety school for Eastern boarding school students who can’t make the cut into the Ivy League. They say you can just smell the sense of entitlement these rich kids exude. Unlike my experiences with University of Michigan alums, I can’t verify Duke snobbery. And there were plenty of kids like this, some even on my dorm floor, at the University of Illinois. Perhaps this is another reason why the lacrosse team story dominated the news cycle for so long: arrogant and spoiled rich kids made the perfect villains in the “script” of the mass media. Whether this perception was accurate or not, it fit the story angles television reported on that long-running story.

My real hatred is Coach K. more than it is Duke itself. To find the source of your Duke hatred, click here. His commercials that have aired during the tournament the past couple years are a big reason why.  On the surface he was giving a public service announcement, but it was a de facto recruiting infomercial for Duke. (And his voice sounds exactly like Squidward on “Sponge Bob Square Pants.”) What other coach gets this overwhelming amount of airtime to make his pitch? And although Coach K. has won three national titles, his level of success doesn’t justify the “brand” that surrounds him. He makes a shit-load of money with public speaking, branding events and other “success” initiatives that make him another one of those hucksters that pitch the secrets of entrepreneurship and business acumen to the legions of soulless and gullible people who read those disgusting corporate leadership tomes.
 
 
Finally, I despise Coach K. on yet another level: politically. He is a long time Republican donor who caused an uproar within the University with the creation of his “Blue Devils for Dole” special interest group. However, that’s nothing compared to the disgusting way he joined with the fellow ultra-right leaning Jerry Colangelo (Deputy Chair of Bush/Cheney 2004 campaign in Arizona) to politicize Team USA basketball and market the team with heavy militaristic propaganda. The former Phoenix Suns CEO and “not just a basketball coach, but a leader who happens to coach basketball” abused their roles as American ambassadors to the world by acting as public relations officials for the military-industrial complex. Maybe if either of them had actually seen any military combat experience in their life, they would think and act differently. For more on this, please check out Dave Zirin’s “Welcome to the Terrordome: the pain, politics, and promise of sports.” 

–Paul M. Banks

I really hate the Chicago Bulls Chris Duhon by the way, for more…
http://www.truthaboutduke.com/encyc.php?encycid=6

“Hating Duke is like hating cancer, It should just come naturally to people and if it doesn’t there is something seriously wrong with them.”
–Jeremy Zuleger

Usually, when I pose pics of cheerleaders, it’s cause for excitement. Here, all six are pretty much in the same ballpark of physical attractiveness

Why do I hate Duke? I feel almost offended even being asked that question. I mean seriously, “Duke Hating” is so “in” right now. If you are somebody, you think anyone who openly likes Duke is nobody.

OK, so maybe that isn’t the real reason I hate Duke but it feels pretty accurate. Personally, I hate UNC a trillion times more than Duke, but I still hate Duke at a level of 19 on a scale of 1 to 10. Maybe it is because of the horrible bias and coverage of Duke that drives me nuts. Maybe it’s because people think Duke fans are so hardcore when they are nothing but a bunch of trust fund kids who are more in love with being a Cameron Crazy on TV rather than simply being crazy at Cameron Indoor. I guess it could be the fact that the Hill-Laettner play still gets discussed as one of the best NCAA Tournament plays ever when there have been at least a dozen that have been more impressive. Maybe it’s all of these and a million more. At the end of the day, Duke sucks.

I think that Coach K is a pretty respectable coach (however, the recent whoring of himself for all these random commercials is dragging that respectable reputation through the mud), but he has gotten really good at recruiting ass hats who are really easy to hate. Maybe it started back when Christian Laettner was supposed to take the Timberwolves to new heights and he ended up being a douchetrickle. I also hate myself for easing up on my Duke hate during the Boozer era (I had to retroactively hate Boozer for his fleecing of the Cavs) but it came back full force with J.J. Redick’s rise to national prominence. I also hate that Duke players are still so highly regarded and touted as NBA talent when they barely have a 50% success ratio in the league. (I might have made that stat up, but Dave K. will check for me I’m sure).

Duke is also so hated because they cast a shadow over so many good players and teams in their own conference. Players like Will Avery, Chris Carrawell, Trajan Langdan, Chris Duhon, Redick, Shelden Williams, Daniel Ewing and many more either get drafted far too high or they are given far too many accolades because they are the face of Duke Basketball for a season instead of being really good/talented basketball players.

Throw in the fact that Duke is always considered one of the top teams in the country yet recently they seem to lay eggs in the tournament with early round losses or near losses (see: Belmont, VCU, West Virginia and Indiana). Since 1992, when Duke was considered one of the best NCAA teams of all time, the Blue Devils have been awarded a #1 seed in the tournament 8 times and have won only one title in the past 16 seasons. Don’t tell me that with a decade’s worth of players like Corey Maggette, Elton Brand, Carlos Boozer, Shane Battier, Jason Williams, Grant Hill and Luol Deng that Duke basketball hasn’t underperformed. Also, they seem to skate by without so much as an ounce of negative connotations surrounding the program. All I ask is that Duke gets its due of criticism from all of the big name commentators and analysts. It always seems that in cases of Duke nearly losing to a team like Belmont or getting beat by Virginia Commonwealth that everyone rushes to commend those teams for beating Duke and then will turn around and fight for a chance to say how valiant Duke and Coach K were in losing. If Duke loses to a team that it should beat, I want Coach K to catch hell for it, even if it is only for a few days. I want those players to get beat up by the media. The reason Duke turns out players that so many people hate (i.e. Laettner, Redick, Paulus) is because those players get accustomed to being coddled by the fans and media so they have no fear of repercussions if they do fail. In turn, we get the privilege of watching spoiled, cocky, semi-talented basketball players wear a Duke uniform year after year.

Until those changes take effect (or until someone from Duke decks Roy Williams) I will continue to hate Duke. As I’ve stated before, if you openly cheer for Duke or UNC it is a proven fact that you are going to hell. It’s in the Bible (or at least it should be).

–Peter Christian

 

I know how much Pete loves Drew Neitzel and his on-the-court screaming. During his freshman year of 2005, #11 and company knocked out #1 seeded Duke.

I’m not a big college basketball fan, but I’m certainly aware of America’s fascination with hating Duke. There are websites, such as www.truthaboutduke.com, that carefully analyze the many reasons to despise the storied basketball program. There are countless videos and articles skewering the most hated players in Blue Devil history–and even more castigating their famed coach. Duke haters even celebrated the accidental knee injury suffered by the Blue Devils mascot earlier this season (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuH_KmcMAAQ). Why do the team, its coach and its fans inspire so much hatred? Here’s a brief, unbiased opinion from someone who neither hates nor supports the Blue Devils.
 
1. People hate Duke because they’re successful. Paul covers this in his breakdown. I’ll merely add that it is the rare successful franchise that somehow manages to dash the hopes of opposing teams’ fans without alienating them. Growing up in the Chicago area in the ’90s I experienced firsthand that very phenomenon: the Chicago Bulls. I’ve encountered few people who hate Michael Jordan or the Bulls–even those whose teams were routinely destroyed by MJ have to admit he was just too good to be despised.
 
2. People hate Duke because of their playing style. The fake applications for the “Duke Flopping Camp” floating around the internet say it all.
 
3. People hate Duke because they couldn’t get in. There are few colleges known as much for their academics as their athletics–it’s more the exception than the rule. Because they are so rare, these schools are some of the most desirable and therefore hardest to get into. The accusation that everyone at Duke acts “entitled” is one often thrown at the students of Ivy League institutions as well. After attending one such university–and visiting many others for recruiting trips or track meets–I can honestly say that in my opinion the inferiority complex of outsiders causes them to assume a certain attitude or condescension that isn’t actually there. There are braggarts and snobs everywhere; anticipating their existence and actively seeking out that kind of negativity is a waste of time.
 
4. People hate Duke because it’s “cool.” Reverse bandwagon-ing is all the rage.

–Sarah Spain

 

Reggie Love passed out at a UNC frathouse
 

First off, let me say that I don’t hate Duke. I absolutely respect what they have done as a program over the past 17 or so seasons and think Mike Krzyzyzyzyzyzewski is undoubtedly one of the best coaches to ever draw on a dry-erase board. With that being said, I find myself rooting against the Blue Devils every NCAA Tournament.

In the days leading up to the NCAA Tourney, the all-time face of Dukie Nation, Christian Laettner was on Jim Rome’s radio show. Rome asked Laettner this exact question, why he thought Duke was such a hated program? Despite the fact that Laettner sounds like a guy who smoked way too much pot in his life, he brought up a good point. Duke is sort of like Tiger Woods. Both are consistently the best in their respective game. Both are highly thought of by their peers. But more often than not, both end up being hated for because they are “elites” of their sport. Laettner admitted that Tiger is unbelievable and amazing to watch because he is the best. Still, Laettner says he will actually root for Tiger to lose because he is sick of seeing him win. I suffered from the same disease growing up in Chicago with Michael Jordan and the Bulls. My sickness for seeing them win title after title and for the constant praise MJ received actually turned into a burning hatred.

Some of the loathing also stems from Duke’s image as a university. It is stereotyped as a “smart” school attended by rich, snobby, preppy kids who drive to Durham in their brand new Mercedes Benz and will likely see more money from their trust-fund than the majority of Americans will in their lifetime of labor. (And yes, there are probably equations written on the walls of every bar on campus.) The players on the floor often epitomize this image of a Duke student. Laettner, Bobby Hurley, Steve Wojciechowski, Chris Collins, Mike Dunleavy Jr, Shane Battier, J.J. Redick, Josh McRoberts, Jon Scheyer, Greg Paulus… can you name one person who likes any of these guys who isn’t a Cameron Crazy? Me neither.

Plus, Dick Vitale whores over Duke… and who really likes Dickie V. anymore?

–David K.

By far the best thing to happen to the Bulls since their multi-player deal with the Cavs…the fact that Duhon rarely ever sees the court.