Originally Posted by
rocketeli
Re K being ill: an explanation is not the same thing as an excuse. A person can say "I performed poorly because of x,y, and z" without implying or stating the further part that makes it an excuse "therefore I am blameless for whatever happened." I think everyone recognized that the coaching staff performed poorly in the SFA game and I also think Coach K was trying to let people know that they knew it too. It makes sense. If a person just got some health news that required them to make a lot of decisions about whether they or a loved one should have this or that surgery or treatment, they would be only human if they weren't a little distracted.
Also, the other posters are spot on about Cryolina fans. They definitely take their hatred of Duke to a cruder and more intense, trollish level than Duke fans do their feelings about them.
It's funny to think that Dean Smith has been retired for 22+ years(and dead for at least five of those) and they've been through three coaches after that, and that third one is in his 17th season (and arguably more successful), but some Cheat fans still can't get over him. But of course, we might be the same way about Coach K...
I got lots of obscene views abouth Carolina fans, but the worst offenders have never set foot on the UNC campus. Do we call them "Walmart fans," or is that an insult to the retailer? IMHO (where the H got filched in the Daily Tar Heel office), many UNC fans are decent people.
Sage Grouse
---------------------------------------
'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013