5 Reasons Why It's OK To Hate Duke

We're now at the Final 4, but we have to address Duke advancing to the Final 4 today. For a lot of normal college basketball fans, yesterday was a sad day. Why? We hate Duke. So, for those of us out there that are looking forward to driving a burning Q-Tip into your ears this week while the media wets their pants talking about Coach K's Dukies, this article is for you!

1) The Bracket

Duke was the only #1 Seed to advance to the Final 4. Now that most of the tournament has played out, we can look back and see that in a way we were right about this year's version of March Madness. This is what we said before the tourney began before the madness began...

"The Group of TeleTubbies is the South, which in irony of ironies, is Duke's bracket!! Somewhere Dickie V is smiling. Duke has the weakest 2 (Nova), 3 (Baylor, yes, Baylor is a 3 seed), 4 (Purdue - without Robbie Hummel and coming off of an 11 pt 1st half in the Big 10 Semis), and 6 (ND). Glad to see the committee is doing all they can to get Coack K back to the Final 4. Only Duke's terrible recent tourney history can keep them from reaching Indy. Ridiculous."

In the end, we didn't give Baylor enough credit, but the rest of the bracket played out on schedule. In fact, Baylor should have beaten Duke yesterday (more on that in a little bit). But, from the beginning, it was clear that the powers that be were doing the Dukies a favor. Compare that to Kansas who was in the same bracket where very capable 5 and 6 Seeds (MSU/Tenn) WHO JUST HAPPENED TO BE RANKED 13 AND 15 IN THE COUNTRY played in a great regional final. How convenient that we forgot about that whole S Curve thing this year...

2) Baylor Got Screwed

-I'm not going to use this space to complain that Baylor played 5 on 8 the entire game. For the most part, the refereeing was solid, but you hate to see one call change the course of a game. And isn't it something that that call usually goes the way of Duke. Let's set the scene...

4:37 left in the game, Baylor leads 59-57. Quincy Acy drives to the hoop and into a sliding and sideways Brian Zoubek. Acy scores and everybody in the building, including the Duke broadcast team of Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg thinks it's an And 1 opportunity and the 5th foul on Zoubek... but no! Of course not! It's an offensive foul! Duke then goes on a 10-2 run. Ball game over.

So, instead of being up 5 - you get a crushing call going against you. For Baylor, I can understand how the wheels came falling off from there. Even if that call didn't happen, it's not like Baylor would have strolled to victory... but it would have been nice to see if they could.

3) Dick Vitale

-For years, Dick Vitale's transparent love affair with all things Duke has sickened college basketball fans across the country. His endless spewing of praise and adoration along with his tired schtick turns off fans. Well, get ready for a long week America, this was Vitale this morning about the insanity of the Duke haters...

"What is there to hate about a bunch of kids that play hard, play with feeling, play with intensity, play the right way, go to class, get their degrees, do things with integrity. I totally get amazed by those out there that have such an anti-feeling... and there's a lot of jealousy involved about their success."

It's not that we hate the kids Dickie - we hate that you and your friends love Duke so darn much. Here are some facts for Dickie V -

1) Duke is not the only team that plays hard - see Virginia, West.

2) Duke is not the only team that plays with feeling - I guess John Wall or Evan Turner can't feel, what monsters.

3) Duke is not the only team with players that go to class - maybe Dickie V is there with the kids in class though, just to make sure they're doing their Calculus homework.

4) Duke is not the only team that gets their degree - in fact, Duke's Graduation Rate is 92%. 6 teams that made this year's tournament (BYU, Marquette, Notre Dame, Utah State, Wake Forest, and Wofford) all rank at 100%. And yet, I bet that Dickie, or anyone else at ESPN, isn't going to spend a second of air time talking about those programs. Here's the full list.

5) Duke hasn't been to a Final 4 since 2004 - In comparison, Michigan State is at their 3rd Final 4 since then and North Carolina has won 2 titles, you tell me who I should be jealous of...

OMG - now Colin Cowherd is talking about Duke's diversity. Let's just move on before I get angry.

***UPDATE - Let's add Duke fans to this one thanks to this great and hilarious article from our friends at Rumors & Rants where they interview actual Duke fans. Just be thankful that you aren't one of them.

4) Conspiracy Theory

-It's funny how the conspiracy theorists only come out for the NBA Playoffs. Waaahh... David Stern wants the Lakers and Celtics in the Finals.... waaahhh Lebron James always gets every call. Umm... did we just witness what happened yesterday and throughout the tournament? Let's take a trip to Crazy Town and let the conspiracy theorists have some fun!

*Refereeing in yesterday's game. It might not show up throughout, but look which way the biggest call of the game went - check.

*Easiest bracket - check.

*The NCAA can opt out of its TV deal with CBS after this year. Ratings = dollars. Duke = ratings. The question is, who picks up the red phone first to give Duke the best chance to make it - the NCAA or CBS? Seeing Nantz and Kellogg follow Duke's yellow brick road to Indy adds further spice to the whole network conspiracy. I can't believe I'm agreeing with Jason Whitlock here, but conspiracy theories make for strange bedfellows.

*Coach K is secretly a Communist Spy and was also the second gunman on the grassy knoll.

OK, I made that last one up, but I almost had you for a second!

5) Duke Colored Glasses

-When one program is shoved down your throats as all that is right with the world, you begin to ask questions. What makes Duke so much superior to other programs? Is it because they're smarter? Or their coach is a "good guy" and "respectable"? Is it because they have "good kids" who "play hard" and "play the right way"?

Does Duke tangibly play harder or righter than Michigan State, UNC, UK, or other top programs? No! Yet, they are lifted up as the holy grail of basketball programs. Don't get me wrong, it's great that they recruit good kids and that they graduate and all the rest. It is admirable. But Duke is not the only team in the country that does these things.

In an age where so many guys are out after a year, it is the programs and coaches that become the leading characters. Duke and Coach K don't recruit the one and done guys like Derrick Rose, John Wall, or DeMarcus Cousins. You rarely see guys at Duke with headbands and tattoos like DeMarcus Cousins. You see understated guys like Scheyer, Singler, and Smith. You see Duke recruit guys that will likely stay for 4 years in school. Yes, they can ball, but they won't make a lot of noise doing it.

Here's 2 takes about UK's talented big man - who might symbolize the Duke divide.

From CBS's Gary Parrish

No, the biggest threat to Kentucky's national title hopes is that DeMarcus Cousins seems a little unbalanced and capable of snapping at any time. Or, as Louisville's Edgar Sosa reportedly put it after the game, Cousins is a "nutcase." The guy is capable of getting 20 and 15 in the Final Four against Kansas or of throwing a punch at Sherron Collins before the first media timeout.

From RealGM

He undoubtedly doesn’t have the maturity of a Blake Griffin in 2009, or Oden/Durant in 2007, but he has a great sense of the game, plays extremely hard within a team concept and is genuinely well-liked and well-respected by his teammates... Ultimately in Cousins, I see a pretty decent guy who plays with a lot of emotion. I might need a longer vetting process if my future unborn daughter brought him home instead of someone like Evan Turner, but he shouldn’t have any serious problems to override his talent.

And yet, the stigma of Cousins is that he is a nutcase and unbalanced. By the way, don't tell me Cousins lost his cool and cost UK against WVU - Cousins didn't shoot 4/32 from downtown. And yet, he plays as hard or harder than any of Duke's big guys - however that judgment is made. Compare that to glowing articles about Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler. Here's a great line about Singler from Bleacher Report:

He is willing to play the entire game without a break, grab rebounds, make hustle plays, and hit big baskets without receiving any credit on the national level... It's true—no one in the nation works harder and more efficiently for his team than Singler does for Duke.

Is it the tattoos and the headband and the showing of emotion that scares us? If DeMarcus Cousins put on a Duke uniform would we see more clearly the big man with the high basketball IQ with the skills to be a future All-Star - I bet we would. If Singler didn't play for Duke would folks say he's the hardest working player in the nation? Of course not - he'd be Jon Diebler. In the end, that's my biggest problem with the love affair with Duke. Nobody sees past the uniform.