Why Does Everybody Hate Duke?
Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 10:33PM 
By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season
Did Duke get what seemed an easy path to the Final Four? Probably. Did Duke get a favorable call or two late in its South Region championship game against Baylor? Perhaps.
But is that enough to crank up the hate machine yet again this weekend when Coach Mike Krzyzewski and his Blue Devils make another Final Four appearance? Hardly.
If you want to go back in recent history and cite other examples as you present your case against Duke, I know you think you've got some. But isn't it a waste of time to hate a college basketball team? I've never understood the anti-Duke sentiment that rivals the hatred for Notre Dame football. It really is ridiculous, just like the anti-Irish rage.
I've told the story a few times about wearing my Cleveland Indians hat to an interleague game at Cincinnati years ago. I won't re-hash every detail, but for those who aren't familiar, let's just say I got hit with some trash talk after the Reds won and it was indeed embarrassing. Just not for me.
Now I'm all for going all out to support your squad. By all means, have some beers and scream your head off. Be a dork and paint your face. But leave it at that. I've always preferred to be for X than against Y, but in the process of following your favorites, I fully understand you're going to develop strong feelings against a few of your team's rivals.
But you have to remember that Duke didn't determine the seedings or the brackets. That's the NCAA's racket. Those late calls against Baylor? Talk to the men in stripes. The overall Duke conspiracy the last two decades? Dude, seriously.
I've been an Ohio State fan since childhood, but the only time I care what Michigan does on the football field is on one particular Saturday around Thanksgiving. I'm a knowledgeable sports fan and follow most of them closely, but games played by people I'll never meet will never have a significant impact on my life or even my mood on a particular day.
Coach K appears to run Duke's program cleanly. He wins many games with players who often come from backgrounds not typical of college basketball stars. He has positioned his program in such a way that for years on the recruiting trail now, Duke has been choosing players, not the other way around.
I don't have the answers, but I'm wondering what yours is. Why does everybody hate Duke?
Duke, Mike Krzyzewski, NCAA Tournament
Reader Comments (4)
It reminds me of the t-shirts I used to see at school: Harvard, the University of Chicago of the East. Who does it make look bad? I don't know how far back the hatred goes, but was it Christian Laettner's supposed arrogance that triggered it? Do people look at the majority white Duke teams and think "over-privileged"? I agree with the article John. Why go through the trouble of "non-support" by, for real-life example in the state of Maryland, getting an "IH8DUKE" license plate for your car?
I hate Duke because I tend to root for a team that considers Duke a rival--the University of Maryland, College Park. Interestingly enough, though, I tend to put more energy into hating Duke than I do liking the Terps, who are about #3 on my depth chart (behind my two alma maters). Now that I live in North Carolina, the hatred is often echoed by Tar Heels fans.
You mention Coach K. Despite my feelings about his team, I actually like Coach K quite a bit. In fact, I was glad to see him coach USA basketball so I could actually root for him.
Shekhar: I'm sure Laettner had a lot to do with the Duke-hating, but it was probably already in place thanks to Danny Ferry and the other "similar" players from the 1980s. Curtis, I can understand ACC folks slightly more than non-ACC folks in their hatred of Duke.
You hit the nail on the head John: race and favoritism. Your boy Cowherd said the other day that you have to be 10 points better than Duke to beat them by 3 because the officials give them about 6 to 7 points every game. It's the same reason people hate the NBA. Like Lebron needs special treatment.
It also doesn't help that people like Vitale won't shut up about them and the NCAA gives them the easiest (not even close) road to the Final Four even though they're the worst of the 1 seeds.
And, did someone already mention Christian Laettner?
That said, go to Cameron sometime as an objective participant and tell me you don't enjoy the Duke atmosphere. Been there. Amazing.