Mar.16 at 12:19 pm

Sebastian says:
My bracket took kind of a hit yesterday too. Standford choked man. And here is why I hate Duke. For some reason they just come off as pretty boys who cry and whine when they don’t get their way. That’s just my opinion though.

Mar.16 at 12:21 pm

Matthew says:
I’m not a Duke fan b/c I’m a Kentucky fan and I believe, even though they don’t play each other every year, that’s one of the biggest non-conference rivalries in college basketball. Also, we can’t stand Christian Laettner, not necessarily b/c he killed us in that 92 Regional final, but b/c he stepped on one of our player’s chests and basically nothing happened to him. Had it been any other player on Kentucky’s team besides Aminu Timberlake, they would have got up and slugged Laettner and they both would have been ejected. I know this was 15 years ago, but they still have that arogance about them that they get all the calls and nothing they do is wrong. They tend to cry when things don’t go their way. For instance, last night Greg Paulus tried to get in Eric Maynor’s face why?? Because Maynor was d’ing his ass up. I’m surprised Gerald Henderson actually got suspened for his actions. Coach K didn’t think it was a dirty play. A foul like that was completely unnecessary at that time in the game. Who levied that suspension by the way? Was it the ACC or Duke themselves. Anyway, this is why I beef.

Mar.16 at 12:29 pm

Khalid Salaam says:
Yeah i noticed Paulus getting all pissed too. It was corny on his part I agree but does anyone think Duke players have a sense of entitlement that other big programs don’t? Are they any worse?

Mar.16 at 12:33 pm

Kevin Wilson says:
I had a friend who attended UNC and he called Duke “The University of New Jersey at Durham.” I think those who bleed Tar Heel blue believe Duke has a campus made up of Northeasterners but presents itself as a school of North Carolina tradition.

Mar.16 at 12:50 pm

» Live Game Notes: Tourney Day 2 - SLAM ONLINE says:
[…] See our brackets crumble in real time. by Ben Collins My bracket hasn’t completely exploded yet (but Xavier and Duke — yes, I picked Duke), but all of the bombs are planted in Day 2. It all starts with this UNLV-GT game and ends with the Nevada-Creighton Game of the Century. This is a thread to collectively talk each other off the ledge. - Just got through finished reading Khalid’s thoughts on why it’s a faux pas to like Duke and that the Blue Devils are human too, so we shouldn’t be all over them as much as we are as a society. It’s so well-written that it’s hard to retort, so read it, but don’t worry rest-of-America, I’m working on the counter-point as we speak. […]

Mar.16 at 12:56 pm

Menudo Terremoto Williams says:
The reasons to hate Duke:
1) Duke is college basketball’s equivalent of Goliath or The Man. 2) Duke “fans” are to college basketball what a)Yankee “fans” are to baseball
b) Laker “fans” are to NBA basketball
c) Man United “fans” are to real football
d) Cowboy “fans” are to US football Many (not all) root for them just to root for a winner. Can someone who loves Duke but didn’t go to Duke explain what the boner is?

Mar.16 at 12:59 pm

rob stewart says:
I don’t look at Duke as Goliath but I do look at them as the rich kid who really believes he is better than you (and acts that way) because he has more money than you. It’s cool to have money though, just don’t be a snob.

Mar.16 at 1:04 pm

thesubwayconnection says:
I hate Duke because it’s seen as an upper class / lower class thing. I’ve never been rich, and I’ve always had that rubbed in my face by people who had more than me. Duke personifies that action as a whole. Duke teams are usually arrogant (Paulus, please.) and usually feel that they’re entitled to something more than other teams. Also, from everything I’ve heard, Dukies feel superior to Heels fans because they’re a private school, not a public one. It’s an elitist thing, really.

Mar.16 at 1:04 pm

Khalid Salaam says:
Goliath? But Duke has only won 3 championships? Why not UCLA or Kentucky? They won for decades? Of for a more contemporary tilt why not UCONN? Sure they misses the tourney this year but they’re usually very good. Its more than just them being successful, the reason for the hatred goes deeper. …uh, The Man? what?

Mar.16 at 1:10 pm

Khalid Salaam says:
So then why do people love Notre Dame? You have to be rich to go there, the tuition is nuts. You mention that you’ve heard things about Dukies but do you actually know anyone who goes there? Who went there? You know UNC people but what about Wake or GA Tech? What do their alums say? Do you know anything about the school besides its bball team? (not lacrosse either, i mean do you know anything about their student body)

Mar.16 at 1:18 pm

hoopshypeisbetterthanslam says:
These same people bitchin about Duke and all this entitlement are the same ones who support the shadiest programs in basketball. They hated when Duke killed the Fab 5, and it’s just ballooned from there. They hate Duke because Duke does it right? What sense does that make? They graduate kids and have never had the slightest hint of a recruiting violation. Plus, you have to have 1300 on your SAT’s to get in. There is no program in college athletics as hated as Duke and I have never understood it. I guess when you are consistantly good for as many years and have racked up as many victories people are going to dislike you.

Mar.16 at 1:29 pm

Jason says:
I hate Notre Dame too. Anyway, I guess it’s tall poppy syndrome and partly the (percieved) whinny-ness of Duke players and fans. I don’t hope their jet crashes into the mountains and Coach K is forced to eat Paulus or anything, but I do enjoy seeing them beaten on the court. I suppose if they sucked for years and years, I’d move on and find some other whiners to root against, but for now, it’s a glorious time to hate Duke.

Mar.16 at 1:32 pm

Khalid Salaam says:
pardon me for the typos. I’m watching the tourney and working while i blog. it’s not an excuse buts its true.

Mar.16 at 1:54 pm

Sparker says:
duke’s student body has basically a party-hearty rep. there is lots of $ on campus, but it’s actually where the slightly dumber rich kids go (because they couldn’t get into an ivy league school like princeton or yale). one of my ex-profs went to teach there, and he said that it was pretty amazing how reluctant his students were to crack open a book and read it… as if they were shocked that university students would be required to do such a thing. from my perspective, i LOVED watching the backcourt johnny dawkins and tommy amaker, and no one can take that away from me. as a canadian, i also find it insane what any american has to pay to go to university, but who am i to criticize the (allegedly) greatest nation on earth?

Mar.16 at 1:55 pm

Sebastian says:
I think Duke players do have a sense of entitlement, but its not only their players its their fans too. They think they are the best college fans ever because they paint their faces and hop around like idiots.

Mar.16 at 1:56 pm

allenp says:
I feel like the refs are kind of shady when Duke plays. That’s my main beef. The games seem rigged, and the players for Duke are often overhyped.

Mar.16 at 1:57 pm

MacGuyver says:
I’m a Duke fan from G-boro NC. I kno one reason people hate duke is b/c of some racial shit from waaaaaay back. Carolina was supposedly the f1rst school in NC to have a black ball player, Duke didn’t follow suit for a couple years. But i do agree wit your point about it being the cool thing to do. I know cats that have never seen a baseball game but hate the Yankees or the Sawwks. I personally think the media attention sure as hell doesn’t help. Think about the number of times u’ve seen the teams named on this page on tv. Real talk, in a couple of years, people are gonna flat out HATE the Mavs, Suns, Lebron’s and Heat if ABC and the world wide leader keep dick ridin them EVERY SUNDAY the way they do.

Mar.16 at 1:58 pm

Derms says:
Duke is a preppy white bread, school and I hate all things that are preppy and whitebread. Plus Coach K acts like he is the world’s greatest person, but he is most definately not. Christian Laettner was my boy back in the day though.

Mar.16 at 2:00 pm

Vic Alexander says:
Duke is exactly what’s wrong in America today. A bunch of wealthy upper crust white kids that isolate themselves from the reality around them (in Durham, as evidenced in the Duke lacrosse) and pretend that the rules of society are fair and not geared for their success (especially on the basketball court, how many calls does Duke get every game?).
Dukies are the same hypocrites that love to pretend they are somehow liberal in thought and accepting of minorities and their plight , but really have never steped foot in a community center, soup kitchen much less use public transportation, if unnecessary. Basically a Dukie is the ultimate armchair-crusaider.

Mar.16 at 2:00 pm

G$ says:
My hate is all about Coach K. I thought I’d reached the pinicle of hate when I nearly had to smash my TV ‘cuz he was pimping credit cards to me every damn commercial break last year; Then I learned about him exploiting injured soldiers back from Iraq to “motivate” team USA and I realized I had yet to really begin to hate on him. War, credit cards and hoops ain’t the mix I’m looking for. Khalid: I thought you were down with Zirin and Etan Thomas, they spell this shhh out pretty clearly…So now you’re riding Coach K’s jock? Call me after ya rack up the credit card debt and get your legs blown off in Iraq and we can compare SAT scores. Viva VCU!

Mar.16 at 2:02 pm

J. says:
“They graduate kids and have never had the slightest hint of a recruiting violation.” ESPN did an “Outside the Lines” show a few years ago about Duke players and the courses they take and class attendance, and it was shown that alot of the basketball players were in some type of bs major like general or social studies and other students were talking about how they never come to class. Also a few years ago, there was the flap on Carlos Boozer’s father being given a job by a Duke alumni after Boozer signed and moving to NC from Alaska. And also the Times-Picayune newspaper, in New Orleans did a story on Chris Duhon, who is from the area. It talked about his mom getting a job in North Carolina after he signed and the type of car he was driving, although he came from meager settings. If I remember correctly, they even tried to call her at work but could never get her (apparently she got paid by them but never actually did work or something like that). But I think the main reason people hate Duke is the incessant hyping and harping that Vitale does on ESPN. Truth be told Duke probably shouldn’t have been in the tourney this year. They finished 8-8 in the ACC and had the same record as Syracuse who was 10-6 in the Big East and won six of last 8 games, while Duke was on a losing streak at the end of the year. One can only think the only reason they got in was because of the name, which just breeds more hate.

Mar.16 at 2:12 pm

J. says:
I found a link to the story: http://www.truthaboutduke.com/duhon_nola.php http://www.truthaboutduke.com/encyc.php?encycid=6 I didn’t know there was an entire website devoted to hating Duke. Now, Khalid that maybe a bit overkill. Go Jackson State!!
‘94 Alumni

Mar.16 at 2:17 pm

Russ Bengtson says:
Carolina became my favorite school growing up because of Michael Jordan (I probably would have gone there but I didn’t get in, dammit). And Duke was the evil empire in the late ’80s and early ’90s, with Laettner and Hurley and them. They were so easy to hate. It’s mostly about Coach K, though. Sanctimonius prick. I love seeing him lose.

Mar.16 at 2:26 pm

Khalid Salaam says:
It seems to me that people generally hate Duke because they seem aligned with the elitist, dominant culture. And anyone who considers themselves counterculture roots against them based upon principle. Or ignorance. Because if you’re really a propoment of a counter-culture mentality then you would realize that there is a thin line between a dukie and a graduate of any so called ivy league school. or some state schools for that matter. Its a class issue if you don’t know.
And i get the part about Duke being representative of the class differences in our country but lets not kid ourselves. Duke does not stand alone in what they rep. People just don’t hate on other schools because the medis hasn’t told you to do that yet.

Mar.16 at 2:27 pm

Sam Rubenstein says:
Khalid, if it makes you feel better I hate UCONN and Notre Dame. I dislike Duke just because Dick Vitale loves it so much and in this case I’m willing to be petty like that. Though I find the Vitale Hooters commercial to be very amusing.

Mar.16 at 2:29 pm

MacGuyver says:
^^^N*gga please^^^ I’d like u to name a big school where that doesn’t happen. Seriously. U do realize that Beasley and Mayo will be getting paid to be there right? Coming to a dealership nearest you. Hell I remember seein Rashad McCants drivin a Rover back in ‘02, didn’t Michigan have all there banners taken down, how long was Maryland on probation?

Mar.16 at 2:34 pm

Max Airington says:
Yeah it’s fun to watch him lose, but who’s really a loser when you’re cashing checks from Duke, Nike, AmEx, State Farm, Chevy, etc.? He’s just a self serving opportunist whose players don’t do sh*t on the next level. He can’t teach his own kids, but he’s going to save USA Basketball?

Mar.16 at 2:54 pm

Vince says:
yeah duke sucks, paulus is a punk any1 who saw the minor altercation and half court in the second half should know that he started it. bumping shoulders with the opposition, i know that sounds weak but he knew what he was doin. any1 who plays basketball with any competition knows henderson knew what he was doing, went after hansborough and had no remorse what so ever. i hate duke getting all the bail out calls and looking for every touch foul. yeah theyre freshman and sophmores (exception nelson) but they walk around with their nose in air cause of PAST teams’ history.

Mar.16 at 2:59 pm

oliver says:
can you really call Duke Players rich? i have no figures but im sure 90%+ of them would’t be there if it wasn’t for that scholarship

Mar.16 at 3:02 pm

Ryan Jones says:
Khalid, this column was the blogger version of Ricky Davis missing a shot at his own basketball to get a triple double. You’re just trying to pad your stats.

Mar.16 at 3:09 pm

Khalid Salaam says:
Curious, what would everyone say is the 2nd most hated school?

Mar.16 at 3:10 pm

Bryant Reeves says:
Coach K. Plain and simple. The man is bigger than his team. I hate the man, therefore I hate the team.

Mar.16 at 3:12 pm

Bryant Reeves says:
I am, however, a huge Grant Hill fan

Mar.16 at 3:13 pm

Matthew says:
Vanderbilt, Khalid, Vanderbilt. They are the Duke of the SEC, except they’ve sucked for the past say… oh, pretty much forever. Derrick Byars, however, is a nice player that doesn’t get mad when somebody gets in his shit on D.

Mar.16 at 3:30 pm

Ryan Jones says:
There is no No. 2, Khalid. Quit acting like you don’t know the answers. I hate it when you do this sh*t. Please put Duke back in the Race Drawer and go back to watching the tourney.

Mar.16 at 3:54 pm

W. Mack says:
I graduated from the U of Alabama. And I hate Notre Dame. Since I’ve known anything about basketball, though, Carolina has been my team. So quite naturally, I have no love for Duke. They’re Auburn to me.
But here’s my take on why most of America likes to hate on Duke: It’s the fault of the world-wide follower. For the past 15-20 years, they’ve had Dick Vitale on as their main mascot for college basketball. And as if he weren’t already annoying enough, we have to listen to toss Duke up (no ‘Man in the Middle’) on national TV every other night during college basketball season. He does this whether they’re having a successful season or not. So it only adds to it when the rest of the media gets in on the frey. Again, I’m a lifelong Tar Heel fan, so I couldn’t care less about Duke.

Mar.16 at 3:57 pm

W. Mack says:
My fault. J. had made my point already.

Mar.16 at 4:26 pm

Vince says:
id go with uconn as the 2nd most hated team

Mar.16 at 4:28 pm

Sam Rubenstein says:
P.S. it sucks when you pick a team you hate like say Notre Dame, and then they are the ones that get upset by a team like say Winthrop.

Mar.16 at 4:45 pm

Tree says:
I just dont like Duke because of Dukie V.

Mar.16 at 4:49 pm

Tom says:
I vote UConn as the #2 most hated school (or my #1). Especially after last year, when stealing and attempting to sell other students laptops wasnt enough to keep certain players out of the starting lineup. I would love to see a student at UConn who doesnt play sports try that, and not get kicked out of the school altogether.

Mar.16 at 5:10 pm

Omar says:
Yo man, Ryan got me cracking up over here. And i don’t care, Blue Chips sucks, but it probably is better than these games. Everyone’s getting blown out. I once had a Duke jersey, that shit was MAD young on the God, but i was holding my man Grant Hill down.

Mar.16 at 5:22 pm

M. Tierney says:
As a Virginia alumnus (go Hoos!) I can tell you the reason that people hate Duke so much is their style of play coupled with the impression that they get all the 50/50 calls. Plus they spend more time on their backs than a dutch prostitute. They are always flopping like dead fish. Take Greg Paulus last night. You breathe on him while he’s defending you and he hits the deck like he got body checked by Shaq. And that is their MO and they are so proud of it. Couple all that with their consistent success, and they are as irritating as an anal rash.

Mar.16 at 6:00 pm

Kyle WAtson 35 says:
Lets be real tho, do most of ya’ll hate the school itself or the team? That’s what i always wanna find out.

Mar.16 at 7:48 pm

1hush D says:
Khalid,
I want to add a couple of reasons I hate Duke (I hate the Catholics too - it does suck to pick ND when you hate them and they lose. And the Mormons…any ol organized religous school will do)……………… On Duke hating……………………
Coach K pimping crippled troops to inspire the Olympic Team and his recent dirtbag attempt to blame Roy Williams for Hansbroughs broken nose. And those damn AmEx advertisements. Of course, the entitlement and elitest culture is the majority of my hate. Maybe I presuppose that only brown players can attend Duke, not black players. Yeah, I know that last one will upset Ryan because it could open up a whole new thread. Go VCU!

Mar.16 at 8:02 pm

Trey says:
i’m a duke fan and i’ve caught alot of flack for being one over the years. I to never understood the hate. Yeah they won and the media boost them up, just like any other team. I just feel like alot of people are sheep and follow what the general opinion is. Don’t get me wrong i expect them to win but if they don’t i won’t die either. But to be real Georgetown’s going to win anyway.

Mar.16 at 8:18 pm

Paul says:
I hate Duke because I met Coach Krayeip;okdfha;isski once and he was a major league A-HOLE.

Mar.16 at 8:39 pm

Phil C. says:
Listen to Dick Vitale speak for 5 minutes and you’ll come away as a Duke hater.

Mar.16 at 9:28 pm

Omar says:
Why does Dick Vitale have a career again?

Mar.16 at 10:58 pm

putmeonblast says:
Uh, how about their history of racism?

Mar.17 at 12:26 am

whooo! says:
that georgia tech-duke game i think last yr, coach k’s out there yelling at the refs n picking up a tech. what does dickie v and the other announcer say? that he’s such a good HUMANITARIAN! get off his jock vitale. for the haters out there, here’s “This is why you suck.” i’m not promoting the hate, i just thought it was somewhat amusing. http://collegehumor.com/video:1748127

Mar.18 at 2:12 pm

subzero says:
It’s a combination of race, class and perception. Basketball at its soul is a “black,” inner-city game. To see a team that has a higher percentage of white athletes than most elite hoops schools will automatically draw the ire of the casual hoops fan. Kinda like bitching about white rappers. Just take a look at the most hated Duke players - Ferry, Laettner, Hurley, Wojo, Chris Collins, Redick, and now Paulus. What’s the link? All white. Guys like Grant Hill, Brand, Jason Williams, Battier, Maggette, Boozer, Duhon, Dahntay Jones, Shelden Williams all get a free pass. Then there’s the whole issue of class. Duke is a private school and it costs $35k+ a year to attend and as a result it’s easy to categorize everyone that goes there as privilged, spoiled and white. But to do so would be to discredit every other student that attends because their families take out huge loans, or kids that work 2 jobs while in school, or because the school actually doles out a huge amount of financial aid to help qualified kids attend. You can argue that it’s not Harvard or Princeton, but there’s no way that you can argue about an average SAT score above 1400 and 90%+ of its students in the top 10% of their graduating high school class. And post-graduation, Duke grads tend to do pretty well. Duke alums are all over Wall Street, they are some of the best doctors in the world, they span the world of politics, run some of the world’s largest companies. And, arguably the world’s richest woman is a Duke grad as well (Bill Gates’ wife was a pretty senior VP at microsoft before getting hitched to the richest man in the world). But that’s not all too different from any other elite academic school in the country. What does set it apart is that Duke hoops players aren’t doing too bad post graduation either. Despite people saying Dukies suck in the NBA, Duke alums now have the highest average salary and the highest combined salary of any alumni group in the NBA. And even guys who aren’t good enough to be in the league are doing pretty well. Rick Wagoner, the CEO of General Motors was a walk-on back in the 70s. Brian Davis, Laettner’s old roommate, is one of the most successful young, black entrepreneurs in the country. What does this all mean? People have every right to hate Duke. Duke grads take it as a badge of honor. If I didn’t go to Duke or have that connection with the school I’d probably hate our hoops team too (what’s really interesting to me are the bandwagon fans with no connection that actually LIKE the team). However, it’s gotten to the point where it is getting a little bit cliche. It’s just getting really tiring hearing the press going on about how Duke sucks this year, but to give other schools a free pass. Just for a bit of perspective, UCONN didn’t even make the tournament this year, and Arizona was supposed to be a top-5 team and they barely made the tournament out of a weak Pac-10. This Duke team is clearly in rebuilding mode and is the youngest Duke team since before WWII and still won 22 games. UNC was in a rebuilding year 3 years ago and went 8-20. So as a Duke grad I say bring the hate. As for its “history of racism”…c’mon give me a break. You might as well throw up every other SEC and ACC school into that category. You know what a Tar Heel is? It’s a term given to Confederate soldiers from North Carolina who refused to retreat in battle against people who wanted to abolish slavery.

Mar.19 at 12:43 am

hite says:
This is the stupidest post i have ever read. How can a basketball writer not understand why people hate duke? let me enlighten you… 1) 1991 Duke v. UNLV. you couldn’t have more of a contrasting style. A team full of street thugs vs. a team full of preppie rich kids. The media played it up as well. I was a little kid back in those days, but i distinctly remember newspaper articles basically straddle that racist line by making duke out to be chiorboys, while painting unlv out as, well, you know what, in contrast. 2)The clean-cut image is played up beyond all belief in the media. Coach K plays the “i play by the rules. my kids don’t take money” card more than any other coach, yet he has no problem hawking cars and credit cards. 3) sorry, but there is no conincidence that the team has only 2 or 3 blacks on it. imagine a hockey team that had 3 blacks for every white guy. 4) the way coach K treated will avery and corey m. when they left school early. specifically the way he spoke to will’s mom. 5) the racist emails elton brand recieved from duke students when he decided to leave early. 6) the fact that he didn’t even attempt to recruit kenny anderson, kevin durant, or greg oden, because they weren’t “duke” guys. 7) the smug “smart” guy attitude that permeates their whole school. they lord their smartness over you. and quite honestly, there are no other “smart” schools that are good at collegel basketball. YOu may be able to point to stanford, but because they are on the east coast they don’t get much pub. 8) the media blows duke up every year as they are on television more than any other team, with dick vitale constantly doing their games. in fact for the last 4 or 5 years, there has never been a dick vitale broadcasted game in which he didn’t mention duke or coach K at least once. even when duke isn’t even one of the teams playing. the fact that they are the snooty, rich, preppy, kids that are “perfect” in every respect, or at least we are told as much in every article, television clip, and dukie blog, it is obvious why people don’t like them.

Mar.19 at 11:17 am

Khalid Salaam says:
hite you are letting your insecurities screw with your judgement. Your reasons for hating Duke are so nonsensical that i really don’t know what to say. I mean, one of your main reason for hating duke is that you think they have too many white players?? don’t you think thats a pretty racist statement, a statement covererd in ignorance and prejudice? also you mentioned that duke is a “smart school” and that there aren’t any other “smart” school’s that are good at college basketball. Ever heard of Georgetown? or GA Tech? Or any number of schools for that matter. yeah Duke is basically an Ivy but so what? stop hatin. and coach k isn’t the only coach who is getting over. they pretty much all do. just admit it. you hate duke because someone told you to hate them. remember this from “life after death”–”you just a weak jealous MF!..” dog, thats u…

Mar.19 at 12:16 pm

fck the mavs says:
duke suks this year

Mar.19 at 1:20 pm

subzero says:
A lot of the reasons to hate Duke are all derivative of the same “the media loves them” theme. Now that most in the mainstream media (Dickey V aside) are trumpeting Duke’s demise, does that mean the public will do a 180 just to be antiestablishment? And Will Avery? Come on, at least K was honest and said that he wasn’t ready for the league. He could have easily gone Calipari on everyone and “supported” him just to look good to future recruits who wanted to go league as fast as possible, but at least K is consistent with his own sanctimonious BS.