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But, look, if you want arrogance, you got it. One of the lessons I learned from that Kentucky disaster 10 years ago is not to take our tournament defeats so hard, and the reason is simple: we'll be back. Your team probably won't be. That's the nice thing about being a Duke fan. Our "wait till next year" performances are your dream seasons. A year after the Kentucky loss we reached the national title game. (Although, to be candid, I took that loss even harder. Until 9/11 happened about 100 blocks from my apartment, I used to say that the UConn game was the worst day of my life. Now it's a very, very distant second.) In 2000 I was stuck at work on a Friday night, so I watched from my desk as we lost to Florida in the Sweet 16. When it ended I was so irate I walked out of the building and just circled the block for 20 minutes. The next year? We won the national title. Now the losses barely faze me. Last year, when our team of freshmen and sophomores got upset in the first round by Virginia Commonwealth, I actually had a smile on my face at the end. It was a fun game.

I mention all this for two reasons. First, my graduating class might soon have company. If we don't win four tourney games this season, the Class of 2008 will also have gone Final Fourless during its time on campus. And second (forgive me, Coach K), I have a feeling that's exactly what's going to happen. Duke fans love our team this year. After a down season in 2007, we're back in big way. We've been a top-10 fixture for months. We're fast, deep, tough-minded and high-scoring—a classic Duke team. However, we're also small (no starter over 6-foot-8) and young (only one senior plays significant minutes). At some point in the tournament, hopefully later rather than sooner, we'll have a cold-shooting game and we'll probably lose.

But next year? We'll be even better, and you'll hate us even more. Everybody wins!

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Let's see, for starters as a UCLA alum, I just get sick of all the incessant hype that compares Coach K with John Wooden. Anyone with any semblance of basketball knowledge or even common sense will at least acknowledge that 10 (the # of championships won by Wooden's teams) is much greater than 3 (the # won by K).

Yet, all the Duke honks in the national media and elsewhere seemed ready to anoint Coach K for sainthood when he surpassed John Wooden's total number of Final Four APPEARANCES. Given the huge disparity in national championships between Wooden and K, that indicates that when the pressure was on and the spotlight shined brightest, Wooden's teams came through nearly every time, while K's teams have choked more often than not. Wooden's Final Four record was 21-3, while K has barely a .500 record in the Final Four.

This year's tank job is yet another indicator that Duke's players, for all of their All-American pedigrees, seem to have the same sense of misplaced entitlement that many of their fans do. Just a bunch of spoiled and coddled athletes with no heart and no willingness to do the dirty work necessary for the TEAM to win in crunch time. Yet, the hype machine that accompanies the program has been all too willing to overlook those shortcomings, although two early NCAA exits in a row seems to have finally awakened the national media to what most fans have known all along -- that Duke is a choker's program, always has been and always will be.

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Posted By: William Haynes @ 03/25/2008 10:55:01 PM

I don't even hate Duke anymore. I'd send my son to play there in a heartbeat. Or, at least I thought I would. If the author is representative of the contemporary Duke student, I'd want my son to play for Stanford instead!
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Posted By: Woochifer @ 03/25/2008 3:25:16 AM

Yeah, we all wish our teams don't make it out of the NCAA tournament opening weekend! Duke's not winning, so all that arrogance/confidence is obviously misplaced.
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Posted By: Woochifer @ 03/25/2008 3:20:50 AM

Let's see, for starters as a UCLA alum, I just get sick of all the incessant hype that compares Coach K with John Wooden. Anyone with any semblance of basketball knowledge or even common sense will at least acknowledge that 10 (the # of championships won by Wooden's teams) is much greater than 3 (the # won by K).

Yet, all the Duke honks in the national media and elsewhere seemed ready to anoint Coach K for sainthood when he surpassed John Wooden's total number of Final Four APPEARANCES. Given the huge disparity in national championships between Wooden and K, that indicates that when the pressure was on and the spotlight shined brightest, Wooden's teams came through nearly every time, while K's teams have choked more often than not. Wooden's Final Four record was 21-3, while K has barely a .500 record in the Final Four.

This year's tank job is yet another indicator that Duke's players, for all of their All-American pedigrees, seem to have the same sense of misplaced entitlement that many of their fans do. Just a bunch of spoiled and coddled athletes with no heart and no willingness to do the dirty work necessary for the TEAM to win in crunch time. Yet, the hype machine that accompanies the program has been all too willing to overlook those shortcomings, although two early NCAA exits in a row seems to have finally awakened the national media to what most fans have known all along -- that Duke is a choker's program, always has been and always will be.