Thinking About… Duke

Bob Knight’s excrement on paper is a perfect summation of my feelings for Duke.

All you Tarholes and haters can SUCK IT! Both teams played a great game, but Duke won. Fair and square!

The game last night was played by two class acts and could have gone either way at the end. The players and officials were the cleanest I’ve seen in years, so how can you spew hate towards either of these teams? It’s interesting to me how great sports teams and athletes always have such hate mongers. You haters need to grow up….

I am a Duke fan by blood. My older brother went there and I became a fan by default. I loved the outcome last night and yet I was sad that Butler had to lose. Why? Because Butler busted their asses all tournament long. I, as a rational person, can appreciate that. In the end, the vast majority of Duke haters can’t stand that a brilliant coach like Coach K can take average athletes with above average intelligence (for bball players) and defeat the super athletic NBA farm schools (not talking about Butler here of course).

Amazing, Elaine, that you blast Duke for a lack of “decency” and “grace” yet display zero of those traits in your posts. Duke has had its fair share of losses. They won this time against a great Butler team. It could have gone either way. Congrats Duke!

I enjoyed watching the game, and I feel for the Butler players. I sure do hope to see them at the Final Four next year. Both teams played intense, aggressive D and were good enough to keep the other from playing well.

I watched last night live, then watched again on TiVo, and came to the inescapable conclusion that Duke won *only* because they got the vast majority of the close calls. But that is typical and not surprising .. stars and favored teams get the benefit of the doubt at every level of basketball (Kobe Bryant anyone?).

Most importantly …
1- There were two big, important charge/block decisions and both went Duke’s way. Even the commentators said as much. The clearly incorrect charge on Hayward(?) took two points off the board plus the possible free throw. Reverse this call and Butler most likely wins.

2- Matt Howard’s 3rd foul was phantom, and his 4th was a touch foul completely out of the context of what they were allowing. Yet Brian Zoubek threw his weight around like an elephant in a china shop. Every Zoubek rebound in the last 10 minutes started with his hands on Howard’s shoulders or chest.

3- The “non-flagrant” foul looked pretty clearly flagrant to me, protestations from the commentators aside. And it looked clearer the more times it was replayed. He was nowhere near the ball, was pulling the arm down when the ball was going up, and was looking away.

I hate Duke so much that I drove home from Indy on game day (even though I had a ticket) and went to bed with 5 mins left in the game.

That is why were are Duke. Everyone in the country hates us for one of three reasons, because we win, we are on TV so much or what everyone says “duke gets all the calls.” In reality if you went back on every Duke game this year the foul count, until the last 6 minutes, have opposing teams having LESS fouls than Duke. Watch Singler or Scheyer, along with guys like JJ or Jay Williams half the time you see their jerseys 8 inches from there back with a defender holding on to them. They play clean and they play fair. Just like every other defender in the nation they are going to see what the ref calls once that happens things change. What about one of the first three plays when hayward is walking while picking nolan smith? Howard and Jukes had 4 fouls, yes, but so did thomas and Z they were obviously calling it down low so watch it. Every time Duke wins you guys find an excuse on how they did so. What about the ultimate excuse….THEY ARE THE BETTER TEAM! So all you people that are “haters” I disagree you are not haters you are all jealous because our team was winning a national championship and your team, minus Butler, was sitting in the same place you were, on the couch watching it from somewhere else in the country. This was the first for these kids and don’t take away from the fact that they won the national title game against an extremely good Butler team. There was very little more you can ask for from a championship game. And if the refs were so bad why don’t you get out there and do it if you know what a block and charge are until then keep your mouth shut and watch the games from the comfort of your own home.

Duke- plays the game as it needs to be played to win- they had a great run this year- like it or not- they won– and will continue to win- coach Ks got game