Consistent greatness! As I tell my six year old, it's a privilege to cheer for Duke and wear the colors. How lucky are we?
In all the NCAA and ACC Tournament discussion and the announcement of the All-ACC voting, it might be overlooked, but Duke wound up No. 6 in this week's AP poll.
That's significant -- it's the 92nd straight week that Duke had been ranked in the top 10. That's one more than Kentucky's streak in the mid-90s as the second longest top 10 streak in history. Still a long way to go to match Wooden's streak of 155 straight weeks in the the late 60s and early 70s.
Still, a significant accomplishment -- and nice to pass Kentucky in anything!
Consistent greatness! As I tell my six year old, it's a privilege to cheer for Duke and wear the colors. How lucky are we?
Last edited by Dr. Rosenrosen; 03-05-2012 at 03:39 PM. Reason: sp
http://www.uky.edu/Graphics/GraphicStandards.pdf
Fitting that they are 1 behind ... 104-103 ... 287-286 ...
A term they undoubtedly coined after Laettner's shot in '92!I've heard some Kentucky folk call ours "puke blue."
I found this on dukeblueplanet from back in January:
The Blue Devils climbed to No. 4 in this week’s AP poll, marking an ACC-record 85th straight poll in which Duke has been ranked in the Top 10. The stretch of Top 10 rankings dates all the way back to Nov. 26th, when Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler were early in their freshman years.
During the 1,515 consecutive days that Duke has been ranked in the Top 10, some big things have happened:
*Duke won the national championship (2010)
*Duke won three ACC Tournament titles (2009, 2010, 2011) and one ACC regular-season title (2010)
*Duke reached the No. 1 ranking in three different seasons (2009, 2010, 2011)
*Coach K became the all-time winningest head coach in Division I men’s history
*Duke won four straight pre-conference tournaments (Duke’s first of five in a row in Maui in 2007 pushed Duke to the Top 10 to start the streak
All-Time ACC Schools – Consecutive AP Top 10 Appearances
1. Duke: 85 (2007-present)
2. Duke: 75 (1961-66)
3. Duke: 69 (1991-94)
4. Maryland: 68 (1972-76)
5. Duke: 67 (1999-2003)
Duke started the 2007-08 season as No. 13 in the preseason poll. That was not bad, considering that the 2007 Blue Devils fininsihed out of the rankings after losing their last four games.
That 2007-08 team -- Kyle started from day one as a freshman, along with sophomore Jon Scheyer, sophomore Gerald Henderson and senior DeMarcus Nelson -- opened with two easy wins at home and was still No. 13 in the Nov. 19 poll. But the day that poll came out, Duke beat Princeton in the first round of the Maui Classic. They followd with wins over Illinois and No. 11 Marquette to win the title (Singler was the MVP).
When the Nov. 26 poll came out, Duke was No. 7. They solidified that ranking with a rout of No. 20 Wisconsin the next day. They won 22 of their first 23 (losing only in OT to No. 11 Pittsburgh in MSG), getting as high as No. 2.
Duke hasn't been out of the poll since. Th ACC Tournament is important for the streak. Not that Duke at No. 6 has to win it -- a LOT of top 10 teams will lose inj their tournaments -- but to stay in the top 10, they can't look bad -- a loss to FSU in the semis or UNC in the finals isn't going to drop them out, but depending what happens elsewhere, a loss to Clemon/Va tech on Friday might.
Next Monday's poll is the final AP poll. Stay in the top 10 for that one and the streak extends into next season.
Man, if your Mom made you wear that color when you were a baby, and you're still wearing it, it's time to grow up!
"We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust
Will be interesting to see if we can maintain it going into next season. If Austin and Mason leave, we do not get any additional recruits, and we have a disappointing NCAA tournament, it is possible Duke will not be in the pre-season Top Ten next year.
Stranger things have happened...
When you think about how hard it is to stay in the Top Ten all year long (aside from Duke only Kentucky, UNC, and Syracuse did it this year), it really is a testament to K and the program that we have been there continually for several years.
-Jason "as I seem to recall, the next longest streak belongs to Syracuse -- who have been in the Top Ten since February of last year, about 25 straight weeks" Evans
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
Unfortunately, though, the pre-season polls don't seem to give the same credence to returning red-shirts as they give to incoming recruits. Why this is the case, I have no idea. But it seems to be how they view things. When voters look at our roster, they will see only one new freshman to offset the (likely) departure of Mason and Austin, and they will probably vote accordingly.