The Duke Damage List

[Dukerati]

I agree with EarlJam. These Duke stories need to be printed into a book. We have some of the most passionate fans in America.

While watching our game against VCU this past March, I was sitting with my Dad in a sports bar, decked out in True Blue and wearing my favorite white Blue Devil hat. Big mistake. The whole entire game, I was heckled like Mr. Buckner at an October festival in the Northeast. I mean, I was getting it handed to me. There was this one guy in particular, sitting quietly by himself in a corner booth drinking a beer, who kept giving me smiles and going out of his way to make sure that I saw him celebrating every time VCU scored. He was just eating the moment up. So, needless to say, when we took a late nine point lead, I made sure he heard about it. I was acting like a fool, I'm not going to lie. My Dad is a moderate Duke fan, but he was getting really uneasy with how big a scene I was making. At one point, after we drilled a three, I stood up and stared the evil corner booth man down with a Reggie Miller style three-point signal while bowing, leaving him with the classic Miller Time glare. By the way, I am pushing my mid-20s. It felt unbelievable though. The pride I was feeling at that point was beyond explanation. We were Duke.

Then came the ending. When those final, bitterly cold seconds ticked off the clock, ending our season in the first round, the entire bar clapped as I exited the building with tears in my eyes (my Dad had left ten minutes before, believing that I wouldn't know how to handle my emotions if we lost.) He was right. I wanted to knock every single table over as I left, but there was no emotion, no energy to exert that anger. I truly was as depressed as you can be. I walked out to the car, and just leaned up against its side, pondering what I was going to do the rest of my March. This was supposed to be my time of the year, my month, my time to support the hell out of Duke, to watch and record all of their games. And it was all over, in the blink of an eye. I cried myself to sleep that night. My Dad, and most others that know me, can't understand why I literally make myself sick after Duke losses, epsecially in the Tournament. But Duke is a part of me. That's why.

My obsession of Blue Devil Basketball, although sometimes severely misguided and to the point of ridiculousness, will always be there. I love Duke. I will always love Duke. It's something I hold close to me. It's more than just a game and some sports team to me; it's a stress reliever (although that can be seen as a contradicting comment during Carolina and NCAA games), something I carry great pride in following, a hobby, an almost family-like experience. The first time I set foot in Cameron, I knew I was home.

Like Red Sox fans feel in Boston, nothing compares to the feeling Duke Blue sends down my veins. Anyone ever seen "Still, We Believe," the Red Sox fan documentary? That's exactly how I feel.

TRUE BLUE BELIEVER SINCE BIRTH

Were you in the same bar as I was Cameron? After the VCU loss, the entire bar erupted into applause and my friends and I were serenaded and heckled out. I was all for taking a couple of them out and going to jail that night but all of my female friends were crying and drained me of any remaining energy I had left. After we left the bar, I started laughing hysterically for about ten minutes, followed by screaming at the top of my lungs for about twenty more. My best friend was with me at the time and just sat quietly on the side (well maybe he did, I couldn't hear or say anything after I was done so I have no real way of knowing) until I was done. Afterward, we just got in the car and drove off. We still have not talked about the game.

[EarlJam]

Were you in the same bar as I was Cameron? After the VCU loss, the entire bar erupted into applause and my friends and I were serenaded and heckled out. I was all for taking a couple of them out and going to jail that night but all of my female friends were crying and drained me of any remaining energy I had left. After we left the bar, I started laughing hysterically for about ten minutes, followed by screaming at the top of my lungs for about twenty more. My best friend was with me at the time and just sat quietly on the side (well maybe he did, I couldn't hear or say anything after I was done so I have no real way of knowing) until I was done. Afterward, we just got in the car and drove off. We still have not talked about the game.

Started laughing hysterically for about ten minutes? That is so fluffing funny - as is the rest of the post!

Keep these coming folks! I run a cheap little Web site each year for March Madness. I think I'm going to have a section, "The Funny side of Failure" dedicated to such stories as these. VERY entertaining.


-EarlJam

[DevilAlumna]

Honestly MF, even in front of your mom is not that bad as long as it is in the context of Duke vs. UNC. Truth be told I'm pretty sure I learned to cuss listening to my dad watch Duke vs. UNC games. When I was in the second grade I went to Sunday School and told everyone that Carolina was a bunch of SOB's. (I had no idea what SOB stood for.) The teacher said, "William, you don't mean that", trying to get me to stop. I replied, "yes I do mean it, and they're going to burn in hell"!

Ahh, starting out so young. Good for your folks to teach you right.

I learned a LOT of choice no-no words from my dad at Nebraska football games; Nebraska-Oklahoma was always a doozy for picking up something new. Typically, it was something along the lines of, "JHC, who's gonna be effin' surprised when we run up the middle 1st down, run up the middle 2nd down, then freakin' pass on 3rd & long!?"

"[My old man] worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay. It was his true medium; a master."

[Cameron]

We still have not talked about the game.

Kind of reminds me of the the haunting LSU game tape that has been sitting by its lonesome in the top corner of my closet since its conclusion. I probably never will have the heart to watch it. Watching JJ stand on the sideline in tears, as his hopes and dreams of a national championship coldly vanished, was one of the saddest moments of my life as a sports fan. I will never forget that

[Joehurley1]

Man I know it was emotional for him and all that, but that crying at the end of that game tore my nerves up. Man he sucked that night. You don't cry over a game like that. I like for Duke players to be cold blooded on the court win or lose. I'll take Laettner's attitude everytime.

[EarlJam]

Man I know it was emotional for him and all that, but that crying at the end of that game tore my nerves up. Man he sucked that night. You don't cry over a game like that. I like for Duke players to be cold blooded on the court win or lose. I'll take Laettner's attitude everytime.

True about Laettner and a good observation. I would say the same thing about Shane Battier. Both were extremely cool customers under pressure and you just got the sense they were in control no matter what.

-EarlJam

[Cameron]

Man he sucked that night.

While he wasn't exactly having the best of shooting nights in that game, JJ wasn't exactly played fairly throughout the contest, either. LSU's players (or thugs, rather) played dirty, as I recall many cheap hits on JJ whenever he tried entering the lane. And the reff's whistles were nowhere to be found. I believe JJ shot like one foul shot the entire game, IIRC. When the hell did JJ ever shoot just one free throw? A HUGE part of JJ's game that year was getting himself free points from the charity stripe, and he was damn good at it too. He was getting killed that night.

I'm not one to make excuses for a loss, but it wasn't entirely JJ's fault for not producing the big numbers. He was physically assaulted all night long. Did you see his face at the end of the game? He looked like he had just gotten out of a gladiator pit. I'll go to my grave believing that they wanted Duke dead that night. Those refs didn't want to take the heat of "giving" JJ special treatment and "letting" Duke advance with "all the calls." Such bullsh*t.

I don't know how else you explain such a poorly officiated game. We had our run to Indianapolis stolen that night.

**I should note that I am not asserting that the officials that night had any money on the game or anything (especially in the midst of the whole Timmy D scandal), but rather that they let LSU play overly physical against us, choking on their whistles in fear of being chastised like the rest of the ACC crew. Call me out for my opinion, but I am a firm believer.

[thebur]

I know I have posted this before at some point, but after the absurdity of the Duke/Indiana fiasco of 2002 I was here in DC with my wife (she surprisingly is my wife though she was present and my current girlfriend at this point). We watched the game at my apartment in DC, and had to go see a friend's band in concert after the game. After a few minutes of screaming and throwing various items around there, she persuaded me we should go to the show to take my mind off of it.

Unfortunately we needed gas in the car.

I stopped at a gas station in Takoma Park, and while I was filling up with gas, snow started to fall. In the crowded gas station I started yelling to my wife and anyone else who looked towards me, "YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS! THE REFS GO AND F EVERYTHING UP AND GOD GETS MAD AND HELL FREEZES OVER." I continued with this line of apocalyptic prediction until my gaze fell upon one very unlucky Foot Locker employee. I just remember he hustled to the inside of the station as I berated him for being in a black and white vertically striped shirt and not calling a foul when Boozer got that rebound. I think he had very little idea what I was talking about.

[Joehurley1]

Yea he was banged around in the LSU game but you got to adjust to the way the game is being called. In the tourney the refs are going to let the banging go in most cases. I don't blame LSU. I would have knocked JJ around too. He just didn't adjust to the physicality of the game and seemed like the shots he took he was just trying to get them off with no real plan. Then he got frustrated and floated around the outside at half step late in the second half. Real bad game for him to end his career on and that's too bad cause he was heroic in so many other games. That's what I mean about Laettner. In a game like that he would have gone right at LSU. I remember how he just destroyed LSU with Shack in a couple of games. Man if Josh had only played with Laettner's heart. It just didn't have that quality.