GarageGabs

As a North Carolina State fan it’s always been a pet peeve of mine when people see what state I’m from and automatically assume I’m either a Carolina fan, or a Duke fan. There are other college teams in the state folks. As a child, I HATED UNC. Absolutely hated them! As I grew older, and began to understand the game a little more, I found respect for UNC. Still despise them, but not on the level I once did.

Duke was a little different. Duke was fun and refreshing to watch during the Johnny Dawkins and Tommy Amaker years. They were helping the Wolfpack stand up to hated UNC. However, the older I got….I really began to despise Duke. Then I took a look around…all my friends hated them also. My friends were graduates and fans of various other schools….none of them really hated NC State, Carolina, or Wake Forest…but they all hated Duke. In fact, unless they attended Duke, or for some reason fell into “duke fandom”, pretty much everyone I know….hates Duke basketball. So, if you are from another state and run into someone from North Carolina. Please don’t assume that we like Duke basketball….we probably don’t.

Here’s why:

1. Coach K. Yeah, the guy is a winner and has coached umpteen ACC & NCAA championship teams, blah blah blah. We don’t care. He’s classless. The thing that really bothers opposing fans is that K acts like he is such the “sportsman”. He’s in all these commercials preaching sportsmanship and values, (and recruiting players, that’s another story) then he comes out on the court and drops more F bombs than Chris Rock in concert. He CONSTANTLY berates officials, to the point where other ACC fans believe K actually has the officials scared, causing them to let calls go that they would normally be called. He whines and complains all game long and then after the game tries to act all honorable. Just google image the guys name and you’ll see how much he is loved. No other coach in America is parodied as much as K.

Coach K in Action (IMO the 2nd call was missed, but this is still classic K….also classic Dukie V acting like the first call on Redick was obvious)

An Anti Duke Video- Hits on a lot of bad K moments, and check out JJ skipping the hand shake line vs. U-Conn at the 2:30 mark.

2. Duke cheats. Back in the day, it was Coach K himself that used to say that Dean Smith intimidated the ref’s. Wow, how the tables have turned. Duke plays a good brand of basketball. They don’t need any help. Duke gets away with more hand checking and flopping on defense than any team in the nation. Is it any wonder why the Blue Devils have more trouble with non-conference refs? There were a couple of games last year where the wrong calls were obviously made, especially the first game against FSU. The media finally had to take notice and oddly enough, the calls evened out?? Go figure.

The FLOP in action Not the traditional “take a charge” flop, but obviously a flop.

3. The Players. Duke players fall into several categories-