Stewart Mandel at SI
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...html?eref=sihp
Not so fast, Duke haters: These overachievers are worth rooting for
I thought it was a pretty good article with some good points re: blind hatred.
But all this blind Duke hatred -- it's so 2006. Do you even know why you're still rooting against the Blue Devils? Or have you been doing it for so long that it's become as ingrained a habit as mocking Pauly Shore movies?
Because I've got to tell you -- most of the reasons people give for hating Duke basketball don't really apply to this year's team.
Discussing the ease of the Duke's bracket...
But that argument no longer holds water after what's transpired in this tournament. When I said the Jayhawks got a tougher draw than the Blue Devils, I wasn't referring to quality of their opposing No. 9 seeds. It's not Duke's fault that Kansas couldn't handle Northern Iowa, or that Syracuse ran into Butler. Duke's past three games were actually harder when measured by total seed number (No. 8 Cal + No. 4 Purdue + No. 3 Baylor = 15) than fellow Final Four participants Michigan State (No. 4 Maryland, + No. 9 Northern Iowa + No. 6 Tennessee = 19) and West Virginia (No. 10 Missouri + No. 11 Washington + No. 1 Kentucky = 22).
I don't know if this should have been in the hatred tsunami thread as a counterpoint or this one.
“Those two kids, they’re champions,” Krzyzewski said of his senior leaders. “They’re trying to teach the other kids how to become that, and it’s a long road to become that.”