Worst Year in Duke Sports Ever?

[wilson]

A disappointing sports year, to be sure, but this year has given me an interesting demonstration of how spoiled I am as a sports fan. I'm trying to remember the last time there was as much as 2 weeks lag time between the end of Duke's basketball season and the beginning of Atlanta Braves baseball. The boys of summer can't show up soon enough for me this time.

Hope springs eternal.

[tecumseh]

Geez Duke basketball fans are spoiled beyond belief and we complain about Kentucky. Maybe it's a generational thing. From 73 to 83 Duke was almost never competitive in the ACC lots of 2-10 kind of seasons, they did have two good years in there but for the most part not so good.

Does anyone remember Terry Chili...I mean nice guy but not a person you want on your starting five. Now we get into the tourney and have a team that was competitive in almost ever game and everyone thinks it is a disaster.

At the risk of booting mye and calling me a caveman I don't care a lick about women's basketball I would argue that spending tons of money on non revenue sports is inconsistent with the mission of a great academic university. Perhaps this is "excessively negative" and I should be booted off the boards for such thoughts.

[VaDukie]

I personally don't care about most non-revenue sports, but I think you're completely wrong to suggest they're completely inconsistent with the goals of a great academic university. Student-athletes on non-revenue teams don't get the glory or the perks of the athletes on major teams, they're not playing for money of a future professional career, they're planning for the true love of the game.

If anything, it's the revenue sports that are inconsistent with the goals of a great academic university because it forces the administratino to make choices between which side gets greater attention. So while I share your apathy towards some non-revenue teams I'd hope you at least understand how hard those players are working.

[Atlanta Duke]

I personally don't care about most non-revenue sports, but I think you're completely wrong to suggest they're completely inconsistent with the goals of a great academic university. Student-athletes on non-revenue teams don't get the glory or the perks of the athletes on major teams, they're not playing for money of a future professional career, they're planning for the true love of the game.

If anything, it's the revenue sports that are inconsistent with the goals of a great academic university because it forces the administratino to make choices between which side gets greater attention. So while I share your apathy towards some non-revenue teams I'd hope you at least understand how hard those players are working.

Agree completely - college sports originally were supposed to be about something along the lines of "strong bodies building strong minds" before college football and then college basketball became revenue makers and minor league feeder systems for the NFL and NBA.

Top level Division I football and basketball teams provide great entertainment but they have very little to do with what are supposed to be the central missions of a university when academic standards for those teams get degraded to the extent identified in the recent broadcasts which reviewed the "courses" taken by Texas A&M athletes. I am fairly confident you do not see such recurring problems with students participating in non-revenue sports.

[cbarry]

Better hope unc doesn't win the tourney or it could get even worse.

Even worse, it looks like UNC's Men's AND Women's teams will probably win national championships. I don't follow Women's basketball, but I've read UNC's women's team is pretty good. And I don't see anyone contesting UNC's Men's team for the N.C. This really stinks.

[mapei]

I don't mind the UNC men's team so much, but I absolutely cannot stand Ivory Latta or the UNC women's coach.

For me the two things that change a disappointing year into a horrible one are (1) the LAX mess and (2) the new level that Duke hatred has reached. Unless you're a fan of track or golf, I guess, it is extremely hard to find a silver lining amidst the dark clouds. And, honestly, I don't think it will better next year, except the LAX issue will be receding.

[tecumseh]

I did not make myself clear.... I think non revenue sports are great when "pure". But when they run huge deficits and lots of scholarships are given and kids are recruited who would not normally have ended up in Durham then I think there is a problem.

When you select a male lacrosse player or a women's crew person over much stronger academic candidates... I think that is pretty questionable and definitely something Duke (and Harvard and everyone else) does a lot of.

signed

hopeless idealist

[throatybeard]

Utter doomsday scenario averted.

[cbarry]

whew!!!!!!!!

[Patrick Yates]

I think many of us can agree that this has been a bad year for Duke. Lacrosse, last year's NCAA collapses by men and women hoops, football, disappointing years/finishes to hoops this year. Not a banner year (literally or figuratively) for our beloved alma mater.

Does anyone else feel like the clouds are begining to part? Last night's UNC collapse could be the spring board of a glorious year. Lacrosse charges could be dropped any day now. Both hoops teams have strong classses coming in. The football team could be on an uptick with young talents finally starting to mature.

Even the dark clouds still ahead aren't really that bad. Sure FL could repeat, but I do not think they are playing with the hunger to repeat, and UCLA is treating the upcomming FF game like a blood feud. I doubt FL will match the intensity, and we know from Maryland how difficult games can be when 1 team treats the game like a death match while the other merely plays another game. I think FL doesn't repeat.

Even Coach G, who I would like to keep, would not be a huge loss. Many talented players return or are recruited, and I think an infusion of new blood might not be horrible, sort of a clense the palate for both sides, G and Duke. Great if she stays, not calamitious if she leaves.

I am not saying that the next year will be perfect or even great. But our Year of Darkness was touched off by the lacrosse scandal at this time last year. Totally out of the blue, horrible for Duke, turned the world against us for a time.

Now? UNC loses in shocking fashion, also out of the blue. It is a collapse that will go down as one of the all time choke jobs. It is the kind of loss that convinces current players to get while the getting is good and go to the league (TL, TH an BW). This leaves a sour taste in the mouths of our hated rivals, perhaps the start of their bad year.

Losing Coach G for purely mercanary reasons could inspire a still talented women's team to win it all next year.

As for the men, well, we are still OK, and if the new recruits pan out/current players develop, by next march we could be on a roll.

Might not happen. It is just that I spent this weekend building a barbed wire fence on my parent's farm in 80 degree weather in March. For most of the weekend, as I worked, I had this horrible vision of UNC vs FL for the NC and being forced to choose between our hated rivals winning it all and a team repeating for the first time since Duke. Now, even if FL wins it, I am not forced to watch a game where there are two unacceptable outcomes. I can at least root against FL, so that will be enjoyable, whereas earlier there was no forseeable enjoyment. I must say, it was a horrible weekend, compounded by a bad sunburn.

Now, well, at least there is hope for the future. I haven't really felt that with regards to Duke for nearly a year.

Patrick Yates

[rsvman]

Next time wear sunscreen.

[Salty Breezes]

We'll get though this. My senior year at Duke was 94-95, and there wasn't much worse than the combined loss of K, a 2-14 ACC record, and ensuing jokes about K's back that we still hear from UNC fans. The women's team wasn't any good, either, and when you have to point to a mediocre football team as a bright spot, well, your athletic program's in pretty bad shape.

That said, the 2OT loss to UNC that year still ranks as the most electric and inspiring sporting event I've ever attended, far and away above any of the recent ACC championship performances we've put on recently. (No, I wasn't there for Laettner's shot, the UNLV game, the MD comebacks, but this would still be a top 10 Duke moment in my book). Yes, we lost, but you could tell that a return to normalcy was around the corner.

We're Duke. We don't stay down for long. Lax-gate will fade, the men's team will compete for the ACC crown next year, and all will be right with the world again.

Either that, or someone needs to sacrifice a chicken, and quickly.

[throatybeard]

The women's team wasn't any good, either

Not so.

* We went to the ACC final against a powerhouse defending national champ Carolina team, our first-ever ACCT final appearance. My memory is weak but I think we upset a very good UVA team in the semis to get there.

* We upset that same UNC team at home, ending their 30-some-odd game winning streak.

* We won 22 overall and 10 in the conference, both program all-time highs at the time

* We went to the NCAAT, and beat Oklahoma State in the 1R. In the 2R we lost that epic 4OT battle against Bama.

* We were ranked for the first time in 6 years

[heyman25]

I remember Terry Chili and Kevin Billerman and Willie Hodge and Chris Redding. We were bad, but I at least got to see David Thompson live and in person.It still was a painful season and the women beating themselves or snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory for the 2nd year in a row.I like the women's teams. If it wasn't for women's golf Duke would have about 50% less National Championships.Anyway I am over all the painful losses and looking forward to changes at both men's and women's rosters. If Gail leaves for more money she should take it. Just like Josh's decision. Alleva is not the wisest AD in his public statements but I think Shannon Perry or Tia Jackson should be promoted if Gail moves on.

[Salty Breezes]

I stand corrected, Throatybeard. Must have been too deep in my men's bball funk to realize the women outdid them that year.

Thanks for the correction.

[hurleyfor3]

Also regarding 1995... didn't we beat unc in women's soccer, ending their winning streak of like infinity googolplex games? Or was that the fall of 95, thus the 96 academic season?

[burnspbesq]

Cue Lee Corso: "Not so fast, my friend."

The Director's Cup standings suggest otherwise.

Yes, we are going to graduate three of the greatest women athletes in Duke history this year (Lindsey Harding, Shannon Rowbury, and Katie Chrest), but virtually every sport in which Duke makes a serious effort to compete (which leaves out swimming and diving, track and field, wrestling, and fencing) has had a good-to-fantastic recruiting year.

Yes, the lacrosse situation has been a nightmare, but to the credit of Coach Danowski and his young men, they have come back stronger than anyone had any right to expect.

Women's volleyball dominated the ACC this year (21-1 in conference). A horrendous draw kept them out of the Sweet Sixteen, but they are poised to be the next ACC dynasty.

Every fall sports team met or exceeded expectations (including football, alas).

So far, every spring sports team is on track to meet or exceed expectations. Although Duke baseball will once again pay a heavy price for being in one of the nation's three toughest conferences, the 17-1 non-conference record suggests that corners are being, if not turned quite yet, at least approached. By 2009, Duke fans may have reasons to attend the ACC baseball tournament that go beyone the simple coolness of playing it at Fenway Park.

It certainly feels like a bad year in the wake of the basketball flameouts, but the empirical evidence in no way supports that hypothesis.

[KandG]

The nuclear option was averted with the losses of both Carolina basketball teams in the last week.

But we have lost Coach G, and Donovan's repeat and ascendance further marginalize the supposed mainstay of our athletic program, the men's basketball team...no way Patterson shows up now (and how I would love to be wrong about that one).

The last 14 months have sucked royally, no two ways about it. I'll go back to being optimistic at some point, but watching Florida win yesterday with beautiful team basketball that was light years beyond our team's putrid play, and having the mainstay of one of the best programs at Duke leave despite being compensated well --- it feels like something has died within Duke athletics.

[DevilWolf]

Don't forget that Morgan Pressel, would-be-Duke-golfer, just became the youngest champion in LPGA history.

But the light at the end of the tunnel, I believe, will be the men's lax team winning the national championship.

[DukieInKansas]

Don't forget that Morgan Pressel, would-be-Duke-golfer, just became the youngest champion in LPGA history.

But the light at the end of the tunnel, I believe, will be the men's lax team winning the national championship.

And the Women's Lax team winning will be the cherry on top!