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KandG
03-24-2007, 04:50 PM
Sure feels that way to me...just waiting for Coach G to take the Texas job and jab my eyes one final time with a hot poker.

Nothing was more painful as a single event than 1986, but jeez, this year is going to be one to purge from the memory banks.

_Gary
03-24-2007, 04:54 PM
Sure feels that way to me...just waiting for Coach G to take the Texas job and jab my eyes one final time with a hot poker.

Nothing was more painful as a single event than 1986, but jeez, this year is going to be one to purge from the memory banks.

Try the last two years! When you combine both the men and women, and look at the last two years - it's been beyond brutal. Add to this all the hatred for the men's team, the lacrosse situation, and now the Coach G situation, and I think this is easily the most painful time ever to be a Duke fan. I know folks will point back to '86, but I don't agree. The combination of the last two years is far worse, IMHO.

Gary

phaedrus
03-24-2007, 04:59 PM
fyi we just won a national championship.

http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=22842&SPID=1849&DB_OEM_ID=4200&ATCLID=825480

BlueDevilBaby
03-24-2007, 05:00 PM
Whew! Now I feel a lot better.;)

Rich
03-24-2007, 06:01 PM
I keep coming back to DBR looking for someone to write something that makes me feel better about the men's season, the women's season, McBob, Coach G, the anti-Duke tsunami, the lacrosse case...and there's nothing. This has been a somewhat difficult year for me on a work/personal level and I usually can count on Duke athletics to give me a lift. But ever since the lax case broke and the women lost in heartbreaking fashion last year, this has been a tremendously frustrating time to be a Duke fan. I fear between next year's basketball teams and the likelihood of Coach G leaving, it will get worse before it gets better. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not one to be an optomist.

Atlanta Duke
03-24-2007, 06:07 PM
Sure feels that way to me...just waiting for Coach G to take the Texas job and jab my eyes one final time with a hot poker.

Nothing was more painful as a single event than 1986, but jeez, this year is going to be one to purge from the memory banks.

The lax case is the worst event to involve a Duke sports team in my memory, but if you consider the last 12 months to be the "worst ever" you should have attended Duke from 1972-1976 as I did. The b-ball team never had a winning record (after, as I recall, never having a losing season since the late 1930s), never won a ACC tournament game (capped with a heartbreaking OT loss to Maryland my senior year), and hit bottom with 8 points in 18 seconds at Carmichael.

"most disappointing ever" - maybe; "worst ever" - not a chance.

Lord Ash
03-24-2007, 06:29 PM
I would agree if only because I would consider "most disappointing ever" to be pretty darn close to "worst ever."

The lax case was terrible, the men's b-ball team was a letdown, football again won very little, and now the heartbreak of the womans team... woof.

Kewlswim
03-24-2007, 06:30 PM
Hi,

Dog-gone it. I usually put these losses behind me. I still sting from the Men's basketball loss and I fear the women will stick with me for a long time too. I am glad that I didn't sleep well last night because I have a feeling I will need to be good and tired to fall asleep tonight.

OH, back to the topic. Nah, these are just disappointments. One has to have something to be disappointed about and thus both had good seasons. I wouldn't mind a hug though. :(

GO DUKE!

throatybeard
03-24-2007, 06:34 PM
I know our revenue teams weren't good in the mid-70s, but the LAX mess puts the last year into a category of its own.

KandG
03-24-2007, 09:15 PM
I'm sure there have been "worse" periods in Duke sports in terms of actual team performance, though obviously everyone agrees that lacrosse by itself has made the last year hell.

In the case of the men's team, it wasn't actually the way we lost our final game, but how the loss epitomized the entire season, and reflected the bitter reality that we seemed to get *worse* as the season wound down. K always seems to wrangle a little extra from his teams, no matter the level of talent, but this felt like his most earthbound team in a long time.

And the irrational hatred piled on a young team, capped off by the absolute absurdity of Gerald-gate, just made the season that much worse.

The women were really the team I enjoyed watching the most this year, and the long shadow cast by last year's brutal final loss motivated them toward an amazing regular season. But somewhere along the way, the girls lost the mojo...then Alleva happened, and G's team loses today the way it did...sigh, doesn't get more disappointing or excruciating.

Lord Ash
03-24-2007, 09:54 PM
I see the lax thing as the biggest influence of all.

However, I am sure that better times are coming!

JJweMISSu
03-24-2007, 11:47 PM
Whewww I feel alot better now that the track team won a national championship while our girls still have a big 0 in the national championship column.

throatybeard
03-24-2007, 11:52 PM
I think we should play those 8 guys in JJweMISSu's signature. We couldn't lose 8-on-5.

Unless we went to the stall...

FireOgilvie
03-24-2007, 11:54 PM
Whewww I feel alot better now that the track team won a national championship while our girls still have a big 0 in the national championship column.

The women's golf team won last year as well!!!

But seriously, 0 wins in football... disappointing basketball season... lax scandal.

Duvall
03-24-2007, 11:54 PM
I think we should play those 8 guys in JJweMISSu's signature. We couldn't lose 8-on-5.



Don't be ridiculous. If we start 8 guys, we'll *never* develop a bench.

houstondukie
03-25-2007, 12:05 AM
Better hope unc doesn't win the tourney or it could get even worse.

heyman25
03-25-2007, 12:18 AM
Duke needs a Shaman or a Merlin the Magician to get rid of the curse. Now I know how Cub fans feel.The Duke women managed to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory 2 years running.I think and I have posted this elsewhere that Gail should move on.For whatever reason she will not get a championship at Duke and Shannon Perry or Tia Jackson should be offered head coaching position.

KandG
03-25-2007, 12:32 AM
Better hope unc doesn't win the tourney or it could get even worse.

Especially if both the men *and* women win. Imagine Ty and Ivory holding up the men and women's trophies respectively in the next ten days, with a presser shortly afterward announcing Coach G's hiring by another school.

Might be time to consider that month long trip to Eastern Europe.

sbpollo
03-25-2007, 07:28 AM
I agree these were "lean" years, but not bad. We still supported OUR team no matter what. Most of us went to all the "JV" games and still packed the bottom part of Cameron. It was good to see kids messing with Tom Burleson when he went into the crowd for an out of bounds ball! I guess we'll finally let Paul Fox off the hook.

The game does move on, these are kids, not professional athletes, despite what all the talking heads on TV make them out to be. Let's continue to support them!

pacificrounder
03-25-2007, 08:19 AM
Especially if both the men *and* women win. Imagine Ty and Ivory holding up the men and women's trophies respectively in the next ten days, with a presser shortly afterward announcing Coach G's hiring by another school.

Might be time to consider that month long trip to Eastern Europe.
That is really the most disturbing thought I have considered this year. It made my stomach turn. Please God, say it ain't so.

GO GTOWN!
GO GWU!

wilson
03-25-2007, 10:03 AM
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
03-25-2007, 12:29 PM
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
03-25-2007, 12:46 PM
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
03-25-2007, 02:17 PM
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
03-25-2007, 02:28 PM
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
03-25-2007, 03:29 PM
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
03-25-2007, 06:50 PM
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
03-25-2007, 07:34 PM
Utter doomsday scenario averted.

cbarry
03-25-2007, 07:43 PM
whew!!!!!!!!

Patrick Yates
03-26-2007, 12:31 PM
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
03-26-2007, 12:36 PM
Next time wear sunscreen.;)

Salty Breezes
03-26-2007, 01:51 PM
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
03-26-2007, 02:44 PM
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
03-26-2007, 03:54 PM
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
03-26-2007, 10:43 PM
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
03-27-2007, 12:03 AM
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
03-27-2007, 01:42 AM
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
04-03-2007, 04:21 PM
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
04-03-2007, 04:36 PM
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
04-03-2007, 04:43 PM
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!

Highlander
04-03-2007, 05:23 PM
I posted at the end of the regular season that people should take some time out to cherish the fact that the Women's team accomplished something this year that no basketball team has ever done at Duke before - go undefeated through the regular season. From the looks of this thread, that accomplishment is a distant memory, as this year is one most people would rather forget.

I'll be the first to admit that it was certainly very disappointing to see the women and men fall in the tournament and not have any postseason success, and to see Coach G decide to leave. However, if you look at this year's women's basketball team and see nothing but disappointment, then you truly need some perspective.

Uncle Drew
04-03-2007, 05:32 PM
I'd have to say over all this has been the worst year for Duke sports, mainly due to expectations and teams not living up to them. But there is one thing that could make thing twice as bad and put us all in a funk. Not getting Patrick Patterson would be a pin prick compared to Wright, Hansborough and Lawson ALL staying. As bad as things seem right now that would be like going from dark gray clouds to a tornado.

DevilWolf
04-03-2007, 05:55 PM
^ I could care less if those guys return. I'm more concerned with our teams and coaches.

Uncle Drew
04-04-2007, 12:21 AM
I could care less if those guys return. I'm more concerned with our teams and coaches.

In any war it's prudent to concern ones self with that of yourself (strengths and deficiencies) as well as those of your enemy. Those &^%$#'s from down the road would be a lot easier to beat with a few less weapons in their arsenal and a few more weapons of mass dunkstration in our arsenal. Man, I have to stop reading Confucius and Nitche, my posts are starting to sound too philosophical.