Picture this. You're a sports journalist, which doesn't mean a whole lot these days in the credibility dept, but for some reason you've landed the dream job, to write for ESPN. You want to write an eye-catching piece and piss of a fanbase that you frankly love to piss off. Hmm, an idea. Pick 10 teams that can win it all. Easy, the top 10 ranked teams. But add a twist, gut one of those teams from the list. Easy, Duke. You hate them. Don't have to think it through... just do it. It'll be a sexy thing to do.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/column...pat&id=4858570
"And the one left out:
Duke. Why the Blue Devils can't win it: We've seen this movie before. Duke blazes impressively out of the gates, is confronted by its limitations (size, depth or athleticism) in the latter third of the regular season, then hits the wall in March. The Devils haven't won more than two games in an NCAA tournament since 2004, despite having No. 1 seeds twice and No. 2 seeds twice as well.
This is yet another good Duke team, with yet another set of apparent flaws. The big men (the young Plumlee brothers, Lance Thomas, Brian Zoubek) are still nothing special. The leading men, Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler, are still overworked. (Scheyer hasn't played fewer than 36 minutes in a game since December, and Singler has gone the full 40 in each of Duke's last two games.)
The Minutes will believe Duke might have a chance to win it all when it sees the Blue Devils actually advance past the Sweet 16 for the first time since Chris Duhon was in uniform."