Matt Feeney Breaks Up With Coach K...and uses tons of big words

[CameronBornAndBred]

Good lord this was hard to read. While trying to sift through Feeney's words to gather what the hell he was saying, I couldn't figure out what the hell he was even writing. I'd need to flip through an entire library owned copy of Webster's to make sense of it all.

Young Lacanians and Derrideans, honing their hermeneutic chops under Fredric Jameson and Stanley Fish, could be found cheering alongside preppy, heteronormative undergrads at local bars.Huh?

Anyways, I THINK what he is saying is that Coach K is a horrible person that sucks kids into believing they are better than they are so they can come to Duke and continue to promote Coach K's brand. Or something like that. :confused:
Oh well. Dear Matt Feeney...ahhhh seeeeeeya!!!


http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2012/11/coach_k_duke_basketball_i_ve_been_a_longtime_fan_b ut_it_s_time_to_break.single.html

[DukieInBrasil]

Good lord this was hard to read. While trying to sift through Feeney's words to gather what the hell he was saying, I couldn't figure out what the hell he was even writing. I'd need to flip through an entire library owned copy of Webster's to make sense of it all.
Huh?

Anyways, I THINK what he is saying is that Coach K is a horrible person that sucks kids into believing they are better than they are so they can come to Duke and continue to promote Coach K's brand. Or something like that. :confused:
Oh well. Dear Matt Feeney...ahhhh seeeeeeya!!!


http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2012/11/coach_k_duke_basketball_i_ve_been_a_longtime_fan_b ut_it_s_time_to_break.single.html

I thought it was a terrible article. He said something blah blah blah about blah blah blah Coach K is on a pedestal but he's just the same blah blah blah, but never said one specific thing about why that might be true or even justifiable. Just a chance to bash K. It's true that many athletes, even at Duke, don't meet the academic standards that non-scholarship athletes would have to meet to gain entry to any particular U. Does that make K a horrible person unworthy of admiration? Hardly. Yeah, and this was largely just an excuse for the author to showcase his vocabulary in an attempt to convince readers that through use of big words, that his thesis must be right.

The article in short: I can use big words, so therefore i no longer respect Coach K.

Lame.

[burnspbesq]

Well, that's five minutes of my life that I can never get back.

[pfrduke]

Good lord this was hard to read. While trying to sift through Feeney's words to gather what the hell he was saying, I couldn't figure out what the hell he was even writing. I'd need to flip through an entire library owned copy of Webster's to make sense of it all.
Huh?

Anyways, I THINK what he is saying is that Coach K is a horrible person that sucks kids into believing they are better than they are so they can come to Duke and continue to promote Coach K's brand. Or something like that. :confused:
Oh well. Dear Matt Feeney...ahhhh seeeeeeya!!!


http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2012/11/coach_k_duke_basketball_i_ve_been_a_longtime_fan_b ut_it_s_time_to_break.single.html

This is a really stupid column. Allow me to paraphrase, paragraph by paragraph, and see if you can find any logical strain of thought that runs through it (I'll spoil the surprise - you can't):

1. Duke lost to Lehigh last March. Lots of people cheered, because it's fun to root against Duke. I cheered too. But this was new to me.
2. I was a Ph.D student at Duke. I graded papers, and some of them were bad. But I played pickup with Duke players, which was good (except they "condescended" to me by passing the ball to me - which, what?).
3. People at Duke like Duke basketball, whether they're snooty grad students or snooty grad students' stereotypical misconception of the undergraduate population. We also really like Coach K. I know, crazy right?
4. Because we liked Coach K, we conceded that all other forms of collegiate athletics is corrupt. QED.
5. After all, other forms of collegiate athletics had coaches like Jim Tressel and Barry Switzer. I'm going to write a paragraph about all the common problems that people associate with college sports.
6. Because that's how collegiate athletics works, Coach K must work the same way. After all, that's the only way to succeed.
7-8. If we're really being honest with each other, we should celebrate the openly sleazy. I'm all in on the Calipari bandwagon.
9. Liking a coach that does things the right way is an inherent indictment on the whole system of amateur intercollegiate athletics. If you appreciate someone for doing things right, you inherently concede that the "right way" is a facade. This is the stupidest of all the stupid things said in this column.
10. Because of the Penn State controversy, I'm reevaluating Coach K, and I now hate him because he recruits people by touting a "Duke Brand." No one else in college basketball, and especially no one at major programs like Kentucky, UNC, UCLA, etc., touts their brand when recruiting future professional athletes, so this must be very, very wrong.
11. I'm going to call "brand" an "epiphenomenal projection of synergistic marketing strategies" to try to mask that I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about.
12. I don't know what the Duke Brand is, so it must be fake, ergo Coach K is a liar and recruits on lies.
13. Dickie V loves Duke and therefore also sucks.

[Papa John]

...pass the beer nuts.

[CoachJ10]

"Mr. Feeney, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."

[sagegrouse]

10. Because of the Penn State controversy, I'm reevaluating Coach K, and I now hate him because he recruits people by touting a "Duke Brand." No one else in college basketball, and especially no one at major programs like Kentucky, UNC, UCLA, etc., touts their brand when recruiting future professional athletes, so this must be very, very wrong.
11. I'm going to call "brand" an "epiphenomenal projection of synergistic marketing strategies" to try to mask that I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about.
12. I don't know what the Duke Brand is, so it must be fake, ergo Coach K is a liar and recruits on lies.
13. Dickie V loves Duke and therefore also sucks.

Bravo!

I must be an idiot, but I thought that "brand" equals "reputation."

I would sell the heck out of a Duke brand: great exposure in college, beaucoup potential championships, lots of players in the NBA, successful NBA executives (ergo contacts), a heavy grip on the basketball announcer fraternity, the successful USA team coach and the winningest coach in NCAA history, and a great school (which confers a presumption of academic achievement).

sagegrouse

[Matches]

My attempt at paraphrasing it:

"Relaxing academic standards for athletes is contrary to the educational purpose of a university. Duke relaxes academic standards for athletes while holding itself out as being above the fray. This is a level of hypocrisy that is actually more insidious than ethically-dodgy Calipari, because at least Cal isn't pretending to be something he's not. I knowingly overlooked this for years, but I can't do it anymore because the Paterno scandal has forced me to be more conscious of the ways universities subvert themselves in order to succeed in sports."

It's a valid point, not one with which I completely agree - but frankly it just sounds like the conclusion of someone who needs to stop following college sports. I think a university's mission is broader than academics and that relaxed standards for athletes can be justified just as we might justify race-based admissions, gender-based admissions, or allowances for well-roundedness or special talents in other areas. I will confess to a growing discomfort with college sports myself, though - things like the one-and-dones, the growing influence of AAU and shoe companies... I can see why people are bothered by it.

[Billy Dat]

Wow, College Basketball is big business, and....

This article could have been written in the 1980s based on its subject matter. This writer is like Miles Monroe/Encino Man/Austin Powers getting thawed out after decades/centuries, emerging from suspended animation and breaking news that broke a long time ago. How convenient that he was a grad student at Duke so that the article could have a Duke Sucks spin.

[MChambers]

I read it and wished I hadn't, because it was incoherent.

I like to think that Duke's Brand is Elton, anyway.

[DoubleDuke Dad]

This article was really damning - not of Duke basketball - but of the Duke graduate school. How could they give a degree to someone having no reasoning ability? Either this was a spoof of post-modernism or the writer is a pompous a**hole who was trying to impress his audience with his references to post-modern saints. I think he is just upset because Duke lost and Kentucky won last year.

[slower]

...pass the beer nuts.

Seriously - never heard of the guy.

[roywhite]

This article was really damning - not of Duke basketball - but of the Duke graduate school. How could they give a degree to someone having no reasoning ability? Either this was a spoof of post-modernism or the writer is a pompous a**hole who was trying to impress his audience with his references to post-modern saints. I think he is just upset because Duke lost and Kentucky won last year.

How ironic that the author gripes about papers he received from Duke athletes, but then produces an essay that struggles for coherence.

[oakvillebluedevil]

I think you can make a strong argument that Steve Blake's Johnny Rockets essay was a better piece of writing.

[Starter]

If Feeney's main point was that he was put off by the elitist air put off by Duke's program, fans and university on the whole, well, I guess I can understand that. It's not unreasonable to take a step back and recognize that at times it can get a bit offputting. But he spun that into some criticism of Krzyzewski that is a reach at best, completely fabricated at worst. Why wouldn't Krzyzewski attempt to sell the "Duke brand?" Given his primary hand in shaping it, it's a logical extension of himself, and his finest selling point for his school and himself. And even if you believe the entire NCAA landscape is completely rotten to the core, Krzyzewski would at the very least be the one-eyed man who is the king of the land of the blind. It would be far more accurate to assert that he's a relative paragon of virtue and accomplishment, even if you don't always happen to agree with his backcourt choices.

[cato]

Former Duke Ph.D student writes an article in Slate, using the words "hermeneutic chops", "Jameson", "Fish", "heteronormative" and . . . "Duke".

Who's trading off the Duke brand?

[Mike Corey]

Dear Mr. Feeney,

I beg to differ.

Sincerely,

An Avuncular Alum

[CameronBlue]

Mr. Feeney has just proven that the Infinite Monkey Theorem is, sadly, still just a theory. Keep at it Matt, and..oh ...here's a banana.

[Gewebe14]

The title of this thread should be "Matt Feeney breaks up with Coach K.... and N-F-C"

[TruBlu]

Good lord this was hard to read. While trying to sift through Feeney's words to gather what the hell he was saying, I couldn't figure out what the hell he was even writing. I'd need to flip through an entire library owned copy of Webster's to make sense of it all.
Huh?

Anyways, I THINK what he is saying is that Coach K is a horrible person that sucks kids into believing they are better than they are so they can come to Duke and continue to promote Coach K's brand. Or something like that. :confused:
Oh well. Dear Matt Feeney...ahhhh seeeeeeya!!!



Thanks to you and others who convinced me to not click on the link. No need to give the guy any hits.

(Please note that I intentionally did not include the link.)

[MCFinARL]

If Feeney's main point was that he was put off by the elitist air put off by Duke's program, fans and university on the whole, well, I guess I can understand that. It's not unreasonable to take a step back and recognize that at times it can get a bit offputting. But he spun that into some criticism of Krzyzewski that is a reach at best, completely fabricated at worst. Why wouldn't Krzyzewski attempt to sell the "Duke brand?" Given his primary hand in shaping it, it's a logical extension of himself, and his finest selling point for his school and himself. And even if you believe the entire NCAA landscape is completely rotten to the core, Krzyzewski would at the very least be the one-eyed man who is the king of the land of the blind. It would be far more accurate to assert that he's a relative paragon of virtue and accomplishment, even if you don't always happen to agree with his backcourt choices.

Good points all. The self-congratulatory tone of Duke fans (myself included) can be a bit much at times, as you note (and Dickie V. does make it worse--possibly the best point made by Mr. Feeney). But claiming that there is something inherently sleazy about using the "Duke brand" to attract recruits goes too far. Possibly Mr. Feeney is just sick of branding, and marketing, in general. I know I am--nothing is what it is any more, it's a brand. My daughter works on packaging herself for business school applications; a non-profit I serve on the board of wants to "re-brand" itself to attract more donations; the university where I work (not Duke) is very conscious of its brand in matters both large (revisiting mission) and small (using logos on faculty webpages). But that is a vice of our society that stretches far beyond college sports.

[Mike Corey]

Amusingly, a lot of the elite recruits Duke is after aren't worried so much about Duke's Brand--Elton or otherwise--but about their own brand. A lot of the recruits want to know about, for example, the sort of marketing deals they might be able to secure, and how having been a Duke or UNC or UK alum might affect that, positively, negatively, etc.

To avoid the silliness of the author's presentation and to hone in on what I suspect was his point, there's no doubt that college basketball has become (or has long been) an incubator for future economic gain for particular individuals that are particularly gifted at the game itself and at being...marketable.

I get all gesticulated just thinking about it, but Duke is not alone in being proud of what being a former Coach K/Duke-trained player can mean in the world of basketball and that world that can accompany it. And though it may say something about the purity and purpose of the game itself, that the young men (and women) coming into the NCAA or already thinking about the economic ramifications of their college choices...isn't that something we want them to think about, too? Come to get and get an education on top of playing top-flight ball? Isn't that what we want them to do wherever they go to school?

We Duke fans may think we do it better than most, but we'd all benefit (and I suspect, all root for) a system in which those coming in and going out of the system are better in every way for the world that awaits them. Whether this approach accomplishes that, I'm not so sure...but the culpability the author places on Duke here seems to be misguided.

Or as Stanley Fish once wrote, "The purpose of a good education is to show you that there are three sides to a two-sided story.”

[BD80]

Coach K's response: "Next Play."

What an egomaniac

[DavidBenAkiva]

1) Potential future professional basketball players care about brand. See LeBron James, Harrison Barnes (please stop laughing, fellow Duke fans), and many others. Feeney does not seem to get that. It is not sleazy to talk about branding; it is speaking the same language. That's why K is such a great communicator.
2) Why do the prospects of liking the same thing as heteronormative frat boys or hooping it up with basketball players make Feeney question the experience? It is exactly these experiences that make Duke so unique. When I was looking at other schools, I could not find one where everyone from every background was keyed in on the same thing. That is awesome and should be celebrated, not questioned.
3) It's obvious to Feeney the Calipari is, if not the opposite of K, on a far different plane. If the "crimes" of K are nowhere near as egregious, why even point to Calipari? Why not point to others that occasionally skirt the line? If it is endemic, that's the bigger story.
4) I get that hero worship isn't healthy, but Duke basketball is in no way similar to Penn State Football it is not even funny. You broke up with Duke Basketball because of Penn State? What?
5) We get that you are Ph.D. in philosophy writing for Slate. There is great virtue in being direct in language, too, you know.

Mr. Feeney, give this some thought, and come on back to the fold. Most of us are not so petty.

[ForkFondler]

The Duke Brand is Elton. I thought everyone knew that.

[Lennies]

I would love to hear Tyler Hansbrough read this article. :)

[nyesq83]

Go to Hell Matt Feeble-y, go to Hell.

One more reason not to read Slate since Hitchens died.

[Greg_Newton]

"...the chance to run in pickup games with Coach K’s players, who were usually gracious and even generous with the ball, though you could often feel a certain condescension when they passed it to you."

Maybe one of the stupidest lines I've ever read, for so many reasons.

I'm picturing Jason Williams goofing around in a picking game with students, and passing to random graduate student Matt Feeney, who thinks to himself, "Hmmph, that pass felt conscending..."

What a tool.

[ice-9]

Amusingly, a lot of the elite recruits Duke is after aren't worried so much about Duke's Brand--Elton or otherwise--but about their own brand. A lot of the recruits want to know about, for example, the sort of marketing deals they might be able to secure, and how having been a Duke or UNC or UK alum might affect that, positively, negatively, etc.

To avoid the silliness of the author's presentation and to hone in on what I suspect was his point, there's no doubt that college basketball has become (or has long been) an incubator for future economic gain for particular individuals that are particularly gifted at the game itself and at being...marketable.

I get all gesticulated just thinking about it, but Duke is not alone in being proud of what being a former Coach K/Duke-trained player can mean in the world of basketball and that world that can accompany it. And though it may say something about the purity and purpose of the game itself, that the young men (and women) coming into the NCAA or already thinking about the economic ramifications of their college choices...isn't that something we want them to think about, too? Come to get and get an education on top of playing top-flight ball? Isn't that what we want them to do wherever they go to school?

We Duke fans may think we do it better than most, but we'd all benefit (and I suspect, all root for) a system in which those coming in and going out of the system are better in every way for the world that awaits them. Whether this approach accomplishes that, I'm not so sure...but the culpability the author places on Duke here seems to be misguided.

Or as Stanley Fish once wrote, "The purpose of a good education is to show you that there are three sides to a two-sided story.”


It's not just basketball players, or even student-athletes...it's all of us. Don't we go to Duke in part because we want to take advantage of the Duke brand to increase our future earning potential? To get a better job out of school? To show a track record of academic excellence that gets us into the next phase of our lives, whether it be attending medical school or working at a bank or impressing a girl you want to like you? :)

[OldSchool]

I found Feeney's writing style so over-wrought as to be off-putting, which made it hard to actually make it through the whole thing.

Any valid point he might have somewhere in there is completely undercut by his whining, egocentric tone and offensive air of superiority.

People can't be individuals to Feeney, everyone must be smashed into some little box with a label on it ("preppy, heteronormative undergrads" "ex-jocks" "young Lacanians"). He throws in gratuitous shots at various things such as the campus atmosphere ("my many aversions to life in the Gothic Wonderland") and even the cheerleaders ("brightly grinning at nothing in particular" - what, did some cheerleader once turn him down for a date?) which add nothing to his main point.

He seems resentful of Coach K for some sort of Svengali-like hold K had over Feeney, at least in his imagination ("the living myth of [K] was irresistable" "K's aura filled the ...lounges" "on Coach K's authority, we let ourselves..."). Sheesh, Feeney, if you were so unable to think for yourself, you had no business being admitted as a grad student at Duke.

The most odious thing about this piece was the whiff of Robespierre about it. I only hope this guy Feeney never rises to any level of real authority over anyone.

[Mike Corey]

It's not just basketball players, or even student-athletes...it's all of us. Don't we go to Duke in part because we want to take advantage of the Duke brand to increase our future earning potential? To get a better job out of school? To show a track record of academic excellence that gets us into the next phase of our lives, whether it be attending medical school or working at a bank or impressing a girl you want to like you? :)

I think this an excellent point, excellently stated.

[RelativeWays]

With Feeney alluding to Paterno and the Penn St scandal, his intentions are clear. K is viewed as the last ivory tower and there are a lot of hungry journalists that want to take him down. They see Duke's program as a ticket to a Pulitzer and they'll eschew any facts or evidence that stand in the way of that. I've never read any anti Duke article that didn't reek of confirmation bias.

[Jderf]

It's not just basketball players, or even student-athletes...it's all of us. Don't we go to Duke in part because we want to take advantage of the Duke brand to increase our future earning potential? To get a better job out of school? To show a track record of academic excellence that gets us into the next phase of our lives, whether it be attending medical school or working at a bank or impressing a girl you want to like you? :)

Yes, but when basketball players/coaches do this, it compromises the school's integrity. Why? Because basketball is not a legitimate endeavor, due to the fact that it contributes nothing of value to society... unlike say, a degree in philosophy, which is extremely productive. [/sarcasm]

(For the record, I majored in philosophy.)

[Starter]

"...the chance to run in pickup games with Coach K’s players, who were usually gracious and even generous with the ball, though you could often feel a certain condescension when they passed it to you."

Maybe one of the stupidest lines I've ever read, for so many reasons.

I'm picturing Jason Williams goofing around in a picking game with students, and passing to random graduate student Matt Feeney, who thinks to himself, "Hmmph, that pass felt conscending..."

What a tool.

Yes! I meant to single out that line, but forgot. "Here, wretch. I'll bet you can't even catch it."

Reminds me of one of my favorite stories. I was friendly with Battier, had him on my WXDU talk show a couple times, he was awesome. Once, I was playing pickup in East Campus gym, and he was on the exercise bike looking out onto the court. I was sort of a "hustle player," but because Shane was there, I busted my tail more than usual, diving for loose balls like Oakley, running all over the place. I hit like one or two baskets. After the game, I went over to get a drink and Shane came up, so I asked him, "So... What did you think about my game?" He looked me right in the eye and with a totally straight face, he dead panned, "Not so good, [Starter]." I died laughing.

Anyway, Feeney would have probably wept scalding tears of hatred had Battier made that joke to him. Definitely liked that guy better on Boy Meets World.

[sagegrouse]

With Feeney alluding to Paterno and the Penn St scandal, his intentions are clear. K is viewed as the last ivory tower and there are a lot of hungry journalists that want to take him down. They see Duke's program as a ticket to a Pulitzer and they'll eschew any facts or evidence that stand in the way of that. I've never read any anti Duke article that didn't reek of confirmation bias.

My view of life is different from yours. I have lived and worked in Washington, DC for decades. When something bad appears, I immediately assume that it is the product of sloth and indolence, not evil intention. Matt Feeney needs a column bad -- a deadline is approaching -- and he is totally out of material. He hasn't talked to any sources in weeks. Then he happens on his notes from Prof. Stanley Fish's course in lit crit. He builds an entire column around a remembrance of his time at Duke and inserted a few tidbits like "hermeneutic," "heteronormative," and obscure references to Jacques Derrida. The blog is a breeze.

I mean, really, a guy with an Irish name like Matt Feeney can't make up better stuff than this?

sagegrouse

[ForkFondler]

My view of life is different from yours. I have lived and worked in Washington, DC for decades. When something bad appears, I immediately assume that it is the product of sloth and indolence, not evil intention. Matt Feeney needs a column bad -- a deadline is approaching -- and he is totally out of material. He hasn't talked to any sources in weeks. Then he happens on his notes from Prof. Stanley Fish's course in lit crit. He builds an entire column around a remembrance of his time at Duke and inserted a few tidbits like "hermeneutic," "heteronormative," and obscure references to Jacques Derrida. The blog is a breeze.

I mean, really, a guy with an Irish name like Matt Feeney can't make up better stuff than this?

sagegrouse

Maybe a future "A sportswriter experiments with cultural studies" article will reveal the blog to be a hoax.

A Physicist Experiments With Cultural Studies (http://www.physics.nyu.edu/sokal/lingua_franca_v4/lingua_franca_v4.html)

[Scorp4me]

Sorry, there's only one Mr. Feeny and you sir are not him.

[wilson]

...Because basketball is not a legitimate endeavor, due to the fact that it contributes nothing of value to society... unlike say, a degree in philosophy, which is extremely productive. [/sarcasm]

(For the record, I majored in philosophy.)Philosophy is a deep quest for meaning and tenure.