Did I Say Kansas? I Meant Duke!
2010 April 5
Heart to head: Pick Duke! Pick Duke! That’s our team, they have the Coach K factor, and they’ll be back this year.
Head to heart: I have fallen for that mushy logic the last couple years and we keep getting skunked.
Heart to head: This year will be different! Go with Duke.
Head to heart: It’s final. We’re going with Kansas. That’s a no-lose pick.
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my inner conversation
heart to head: pick baylor. that’s your new daughter’s name.
head: no way, they haven’t won a march madness game since like the 50′s or something.
heart: but how cool is it that they made the tournament this year as a #3 seed?
head: really cool… if you’re a middle school girl who likes to gamble based on your best friends’ names.
heart: but it’s your daughter’s name! and we live in africa. it’s not like anyone expects you to keep up with basketball.
head: this is stupid. i’m not picking baylor.
heart: but you don’t know when you’ll get this chance again. i mean they ARE a #3. that means you’ve at least got a chance if you pick them this year, right…?
head: what kind of logic is that? you might as well pick by your favorite colors — as long as they’re above an 8 seed!
heart: you know i don’t care about colors… but if i did, we’d pick ucla. maybe we can pick them for the final four?
head: they didn’t make the tournament.
heart: oh.
we picked baylor.
I know your son is doing his residency at Duke, but to me pulling for Duke is not far from pulling for the Yankees. In my case I am just glad, beyond words, that the nets were not cut down by Coach John Gotti and his Kentucky Wildcats.
James – Well blessings on Baylor (the daughter, not the team!).
rcorum – Ha! My love for Duke hoops goes back to my first ministry — in North Carolina. It seemed that everyone was expected to choose between UNC and Duke, but we decided to like both. Plus, it’s hard not to like Coach K. And then when my granddaughter moved there (for her dad’s residency), that sealed it.
No head talk involved – I went 100% with heart and Butler. Plus one of my very dearest friends lives near Butler and backs them every year, so I went with them too. They certainly gave Duke a run for the money. Oh, well! There’s always another …. oooooh, how long before another final four and final game for Butler? Who knows.
Then there’s these prognosticators:
http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2010/03/31/five-year-old-triplets-could-win-fix-ncaa-pool/
As a long-time Duke fan, last night was the culmination of six years of waiting and hoping and listening to other teams scream about how we “always get the calls” and how Duke is “elitist” and Coach K can’t recruit and can’t coach big men and blah blah blah hatercakes. It was bliss. Pure bliss. And I won’t apologize for the tears that were streaming down my face during the trophy presentation.
In these days of one-and-done, a major college program with ANY seniors is a rarity, much less three seniors WHO START. What Jon, Brian, and Lance — and their teammates (pleasestayKyleSingerpleasepleaseplease) — have given the Duke faithful is our joy back. Our pride back.
Thank you, boys. No matter where you end up in life, you’ll always be the Duke team who did it when NO ONE thought you could. You’ll always be National Champions.
The Butlar didn’t do it.
Lisa, My feelings for this sport, and some others, are well known on this blog, and since I do not root for either team, I was able to watch the game objectively. Having said that, one thing is still abundantly clear: Duke still gets the calls!
From 2009. On CNNSI.
In conference play, Duke averages 18 fouls per game, while its opponents commit 20. Yes, the Blue Devils still get two more calls a game on paper than their conference foes, but they are by no means at the top of the league in terms of fewest fouls. That award goes to rival North Carolina, which averages five less fouls per game that its opponents. In terms of Duke getting to the line more than other ACC teams, the Blue Devils shoot fewer free throws per game than Wake Forest, UNC and Virginia Tech.
Now that we’ve gone through this whole statistical analysis rigmarole, it’s time to point out that raw numbers of fouls and free throws are not even an accurate judgment of whether Duke gets preferential treatment from the referees. The whole point of Coach K’s offense is to create situations in which his players get fouled. In the motion offense that Duke uses so effectively, players dribble penetrate, draw a help defender, then dish to the open man, who either scores or is fouled. The whole point of the offense is to get to the foul line so, of course, the Blue Devils’ opponents are going to have more fouls called on them.
In the end, it’s not really important if the classic “Duke gets all the calls” complaint is, in fact, true. Regardless of validity, the myth will always be propagated by those who hate Duke, and there are many of them, because that is how Duke makes opposing fans feel — like they are getting a raw deal. Maryland grad Norman Chad put it nicely in a column he once wrote for the Washington Post, “Duke players don’t get into foul trouble, they get into fellowship programs.”
So. Neener Neener.
What a great tournament! I think the world of Coach K and the program he’s built. You know you’re a powerhouse when less than 30 W’s is a down year. And how impressive was Butler. No Cinderella story there – those boys can play.
I don’t think either team really got an advantage from the guys in stripes, but the game was not officiated very well. Some trips down the floor they’d let ‘em play extremely physical, and then they’d call ticky-tack fouls moments later. Consistency in college basketball is always lacking.
Lisa, “NO ONE” thought Duke could cut down the nets this year? Really? Most people thought that about 6 teams had a realistic shot of winning the tournament (the four #1 seeds, K-State, and W. Virginia). If you mean, MOST people did not think Duke would beat Kansas, Syracuse, or Kentucky, then you’re right. But then again, they didn’t. But you can’t say that going into last night’s game, Duke wasn’t supposed to win. They took care of business. They’re national champs. You’re almost as delusional as the Duke-haters you so despise.
I don’t hate Duke. I don’t care about Duke any more than I care about Butler. Watching the game last night, I got the impression that Duke was getting better calls than Butler. Its that simple. Trot out all the stats you want and it will not change my opinion of what I saw last night!
Duke is a great team. They deserved to win. You got the feeling last night that they were going to overcome whatever Butler threw at them, and they did. But spare us all the “no one thought Duke could do it” talk. They were a number one seed, in what everyone thought was the weakest bracket in the tournament and had the advantage of being able to watch their first round opponent’s opening game and get a good scouting report on them, something no other team in the tourney got. They are one of the best teams in the country, year-in, year-out, with a roster full of McDonalds All-Americans. They have great tradition, and arguably the best coach (next to Izzo) in the game.
This isn’t “Rudy”. This was no suprise. This is exactly what they were supposed to do. Those boys in the desert had them as a favorite from the beginning of the tournament (those boys in the desert do this for a living; they usually know what they are talking about.) The same would be true if someone tried to do it for Alabama for winning the Football Championship. Alabama, like Duke in basketball, Texas, USC, and others are supposed to do this. They are big-time programs that spend tons of money to accomplish this. I am happy for them, but save the underdog, no one has any faith in us line. Just as with the others mentioned above, it is not news when they win. They are set up to win. It is news when they don’t.
Sports is the one arena in which one can engage in “hate,” and have fun doing it. I “hate” several teams and I “love” others, but I know in the final analysis it is all a diversion that takes my minds off the stresses of life for a brief moment. Lisa, even though I “hate” Duke I think you are cool.
When I said “no one,” I meant before the tournament. Because really? With teams you mentioned, Jason, and the mid-majors factored in, how many people (minus Duke fans) had Duke winning it all? I turned in a bracket on ESPN. In my “group,” 40 people out of over 1000 had Duke winning. So yeah, when I said “no one” I meant “a few.” A VERY few. Sue me for hyperbole.
Before last night’s game, I was confident we’d win. Ten minutes in I was praying. At the half, I was freaking. I’ll see that Gordon Hayward shot roll out of that net in my nightmares for the next 20 years.
But Butler was no Rudy, either. They decimated the Horizon League (18-0), and they were #8 in the national post-season poll. So, Cinderella? Not really.
But deep down, didn’t you want to see Butler pull it off??
No.
I was asking Mike.
Two simple questions to ask every time we have a game such as this:
#1 How much money does Duke spend on basketball compared to how much money Butler spends on basketball?
#2 Can you name one player on the Butler team that Duke offered a scholarship to for basketball?
Cinderella? I think so. Especially when you ask the same questions regarding all the teams that Butler played to get to the championship game.
Amy: no. Cinderalla still has a great great story, even if she is runner up You have to see my granddaughter in her little Duke shirt to know how impossible it would be for me to root against Duke! Maybe when they’re finished in Durham and move . . . .
My 12 year old pummeled the rest of the family… She danced a jig on our brackets graves… She… sigh. She picked Duke.