Loss in the early part of the season...

[Kewlswim]

Hi,

When the Men's BB team last won a championship they had a loss in the early part of the season at the Pete Newell Challenge (?) against Stanford. I was at the game and distraught when the Devils lost. However, a guy sitting next to me watching the second game (Cal and I think Georgia) was like, "What are you so upset about? A loss at the beginning of a season is a good thing for a good club." That made no sense to me. Then the Devils went on to win it all. I guess my point is that it is obviously better to lose now than in March, but is a loss early in the season really GOOD for a team? Carolina in their championship year (barf, gag, choke some more), I think had a loss at the beginning of the year too. Is there something to this?

GO DUKE!

[Section 8]

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

[wisteria]

If we lose early in the season, yes, I will say it's good for the team in the long run.
But that doesn't mean, to be able to play well later, we'd better lose one early. That just doens't make sense. If we can win, why lose?

[houstondukie]

I always agreed that a loss early in the season can be a good thing if it makes the team hungry and leaves them with a bad taste in their mouth. Perhaps they got embarrased/blown out or maybe they lost a heart-breaker at the buzzer in OT, either way, a loss hurts. But it can be a huge inspirational/motivational force. - something many championship teams point to (if i had nickel for everytime i heard a champion say "we had so much adveristy to overcome" i would be very rich).....That being said, i still want to win every game.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

All that losing a game in the early season means is that the fans and press can't agonize over the perceived extra pressure of a team going undefeated. Winning any game against a good, quality opponent is tough. Whether Duke is 20 - 0 or 19 - 1 going into the 21st game of the season won't make it any easier or tougher in that 21st game. You can look up who our 21st game is yourself ;)

Personally, I vote for being 21 - 0 on February 7th, 30 - 0 on March 9th, and 39 - 0 in mid April! But you knew that already.