Duke and the BCS title game

[dairedevil]

While Duke football has improved, it may be a little way from a BCS game, basketball - or at least Coach K - have made it into the BCS championship discussion. A surprising comment from Mark Bradley (Kentucky graduate) in today's AJC:

"Three of the past four BCS title games have been won by Alabama, and four of the past 10 championships have been taken by Saban. What began as domination by a conference has yielded to the singular excellence of one driven man. College football has its Krzyzewski, meaning a coach who isn’t just the best but the best by such a distance as to make it seem unfair.

Love it! Great example of how you may choose not to like the coach, but he should have earned your respect. Of course, Saban will never have the opportunity to coach an Olympic gold medal team in his sport, therefore K>Saban. ;)

Link to article: http://blogs.ajc.com/mark-bradley-blog/2013/01/07/a-classic-game-nope-just-classic-alabama-domination/

[TruBlu]

While Duke football has improved, it may be a little way from a BCS game, basketball - or at least Coach K - have made it into the BCS championship discussion. A surprising comment from Mark Bradley (Kentucky graduate) in today's AJC:

"Three of the past four BCS title games have been won by Alabama, and four of the past 10 championships have been taken by Saban. What began as domination by a conference has yielded to the singular excellence of one driven man. College football has its Krzyzewski, meaning a coach who isn’t just the best but the best by such a distance as to make it seem unfair.

Love it! Great example of how you may choose not to like the coach, but he should have earned your respect. Of course, Saban will never have the opportunity to coach an Olympic gold medal team in his sport, therefore K>Saban. ;)

Link to article: http://blogs.ajc.com/mark-bradley-blog/2013/01/07/a-classic-game-nope-just-classic-alabama-domination/

I assume that by adding "(Kentucky graduate)" after the name Mark Bradley, you are aware that he is a well known (at least in the Atlanta area) Duke hater . This, as well as a completely politically biased editorial staff, was the reason for my cancellation of the AJC some years ago. Lately the AJC has made an attempt to have a more balanced political approach. Perhaps this is spreading to the sports page.

Now, if we can get the Charlotte Observer to ever say anything nice about Duke, we will be making progress.

[Sir Stealth]

I assume that by adding "(Kentucky graduate)" after the name Mark Bradley, you are aware that he is a well known (at least in the Atlanta area) Duke hater . This, as well as a completely politically biased editorial staff, was the reason for my cancellation of the AJC some years ago. Lately the AJC has made an attempt to have a more balanced political approach. Perhaps this is spreading to the sports page.

Now, if we can get the Charlotte Observer to ever say anything nice about Duke, we will be making progress.

For what it's worth I'm from Atlanta and don't agree with the idea that Bradley is or was ever a Duke hater even by a loose definition. This article's quote is pretty strong evidence of that. Won't get into the political stuff.

[wilson]

For what it's worth I'm from Atlanta and don't agree with the idea that Bradley is or was ever a Duke hater even by a loose definition. This article's quote is pretty strong evidence of that. Won't get into the political stuff.I'm a lifelong Atlantan and I likewise disagree with the notion that Bradley is a Duke hater. The AJC is indeed a rag, but that's a separate criticism.

[Reisen]

I'm not from the Atlanta area, and know little to nothing about the Atlanta Journal Constitution, but if the man went to Kentucky, that's good enough for me.

Definitely a Duke hater! ;)

[brevity]

A few days ago I was thinking about how the state of Alabama's dominance of BCS college football* the past 4 years reminded me of how the state of North Carolina did in college basketball from 1991-1994. Notre Dame needed to win yesterday to make the geographic comparison complete.

*Such as it is, given various limitations. Ohio State was undefeated, after all.

[Wander]

My guess is that Saban ends up more like Wooden than Coach K. In a few decades, there's finally going to be an 8-16 team playoff, and people are going to talk about how Saban and Alabama were incredibly dominant, but that they had a slightly easier time given the ridiculous postseason format of the era. UCLA basketball/Alabama football is still the best dynasty in the sport, but the 11 NCAA tournament titles/however many BCS championships Alabama ends up having is probably the equivalent of 50-75% of that given a fair format.

[TruBlu]

For what it's worth I'm from Atlanta and don't agree with the idea that Bradley is or was ever a Duke hater even by a loose definition. This article's quote is pretty strong evidence of that. Won't get into the political stuff.


I'm a lifelong Atlantan and I likewise disagree with the notion that Bradley is a Duke hater. The AJC is indeed a rag, but that's a separate criticism.

Well, I guess I'm out-voted. I would like to share a few quotes from him: This was only a quick search, as I had a Duke/Clemson game to watch.

"To call Duke football the rough equivalent of Georgia basketball would be . . . an insult to the hoop Dogs"

"I don't think the {insert IC spelling of Duke here*} can win either game." (Football again, and it turns out he was right about the games. But I don't think many people use the IC spelling of Duke affectionately.)

* Filter would not allow me to actually put the misspelled word for Duke.

"When you lose seven games, you can't say you've had a good season. (Unless you're Duke, which in football nobody aspires to be.)

T

[sagegrouse]

I'm a lifelong Atlantan and I likewise disagree with the notion that Bradley is a Duke hater. The AJC is indeed a rag, but that's a separate criticism.

Still say on the front page: "Covers Dixie like the dew?" That probably went out 40 years ago. -- sage

[Lid]

I lived in ATL for several years in the 2000s and was often bothered by the way Bradley wrote about Duke, the gratuitous insults (in unrelated columns), etc. I'm not usually overly sensitive and generally get along swimmingly with fans of all other teams. So, it surprises me to hear that he was bad enough to bother me, but not Duke fans in general.

I did have an email conversation once with him about his ongoing use of the misspelling of Dukies. He insisted it was loving, and that it's the way alumni of Duke refer to themselves. That's when I decided to open the door and let him out of my life.