Despite The Hate Duke Keeps Piling Up Titles
Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 11:55AM Joe Simmons 
Since moving to the Bull City more than 15 years ago one thing is apparent, people hate the Duke Blue Devils. If you aren’t from Durham or you haven’t had any relatives participate on the Blue Devils roster, chances are that you don’t like the Blue Devils either. It baffles me that the Blue Devils are so hated. Even on the social networks, it’s apparent that the hatred for the Blue Devils is strong, real strong.
Why do people hate Duke so much? Watching the “Fab 5 30 for 30” this weekend made me realize that the hate for Duke is nationwide as well. When people speak of the Blue Devils, they speak with venom of sorts. It’s like people from Duke have spit in the faces of the rest of America and the Americans want to fight back.
Why is this hate so rich? You can’t dislike the way they play basketball. They are the premiere defensive team in the nation year in and out. They are usually a collection of intellectuals with basketball ability that doesn’t really stand out, but it meshes together like a series of colors in a Picasso painting.
Watching the Blue Devils celebrate this weekends ACC tournament victory was a nice scene in the Bull City. Duke put in some hard work and every time they took the floor, they came out with a purpose. To make the run that they made this season without their floor general has been impressive. It only adds to the mystique of their head coach Mike Krzyzewski. Coach K gets a lot out of his guys and they respond by delivering when it is most needed.
Looking at this Duke team, they aren’t the most talented team in the nation by a stretch, but I doubt you will find many players that play harder. They have a tradition of smacking the floor and pressing up against the opponents best players and making them physically and mentally frustrated.
So why is the hate so strong? Is it because they are winners? Is it because they go to an elite school? Is it because they don’t look like they should be that good? Well what ever it is, the hate is probably what fuels their success, because all they do is Win, Win, Win.
Reader Comments (5)
Well said!
Nuff Said!
I posted this on the Devils Illustrated Free message board if you don't mind. The thread title is "Good Read on Duke Hate"
Here's the Link
http://duke.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=1690&tid=156340983&mid=156340983&sid=1021&style=2
Good article
@Mo
Thanks .. I appreciate you sharing it. Read the thread too. It stirred up some pretty good conversation.
If any college basketball fan has ever watched a dook game then you know the reasoning behind the hate. Dook always plays knowing the 3 men in stripes are on their side. Consistently, dook gets a phantom call, flop that gives them the ball and defense that would always result in quick foul troubles if they were the ACC ref's favorite team. Dook is a team that continues to ruin the college basketball sport with their mentality to flop and pray for the call. Don't agree with that statement?! YouTube videos are being added daily of more and more flops that look as if they were meant to draw your laughter, check those out.
But if their pathetic defensive style, ref slurpage and videos of them don't make you sick of dook then the media's love for dook's jock will do it. These dooks teams are never the most talented, fun to watch or special but because they play cupcakes at home for 3 months and beat them everyone in the national media (ESPN is the prime example!) gives them their favoritism, well it definitely leaves a sour taste. I hate dook, I would cut my legs off if I knew I would never have to hear of them ever winning another game. But if you took out the ref love, media overexposure, game ruining strategies and consistently crappy OOC schedule then I wouldn't hate them. If those factors weren't in play I might actually cheer for them every once in a while. But that's not the case, I would rather root fir my most hated rival than dook.
The fact that dook fans have to have this explained just goes to show that they're not big enough fans of college basketball to understand...