Nitpicker! After all, this is Duke, the LA Lakers of college basketball.

That said, they just saved my life over at Duke, so I'm a bit of a fan. But not enough to ever cheer for their basketball team, their Satan-possessed coach, or the surprising string of amazingly uptight but sweet shooting white guards they always have over there.

I understand how you might be able to miss the occasional walk on those plays if you're a ref and you get caught up in the game. Some of those plays are subtle unless you are looking at them closely...

But Jesus Christ, how the hell did they miss THAT. He spun around in place four or five times... and he gets reward with a foul...

Duke sucks.

maybe theyre just getting ready for the nba...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D9Z1wAwQtM

Not limited to NCAA, Thunder Dan showing you how it's done at the NBA level.

Can someone explain to me, someone who's never followed college basketball even a little bit, why Duke is so hated (or as Wormboy put it, they're the "Lakers of college basketball")? I sort of get why people hate the Lakers so much (they're from LA, they've got a lot of bandwagon fans, they're usually one of the better teams in the league, they have Darth Kobe playing for them, etc), but why does Duke get people so pissed off?

just another reason for me to not like the Blue Devils.

go Jayhawks
go Longhorns

Its simple why Duke is hated. For one thing, they get away with garbage no calls like those. Second, they have the biggest homers in the industry of broadcasting on their side, Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale. Third, coach K does look like Satan, or at least a relative. Finally, and props to them, they are mostly always a solid team.

I still hurt from the 2001 National Championship game, Arizona vs. Duke. Horribly officiated, but ehh, what can I do now?

I swear, coack K could go without toilet paper the rest of his life so long as Vitale and Mike Patrick were within a day's drive of campus.

Whay do American have so much trouble with their pivot foot?
It is a non-issue in the international game!

Not related to this post, but did you see this?

http://www.oliverwillis.com/2009/03/01/do-you-know-what-this-is/

Bulls vs Wizards? President Obama digs some basketbawful.

Bah! Done a quick search but could not find it.

I remember watching Steve Smith playing years ago with the Hawks, post his man up then proceed to "pivot" his way all the way out to the 3pt arc where he busted the trey in the defender's face.

You know it is ridiculous when a traveling violation stays with you for 10 years!

As a tar heel fan that is the single greatest thing I've ever seen

A WotN nomination for the Bucktown Carrion Kings (yes, that's my fantasy squad):

THE Josh Smith (aka "J-Smoov" aka "J-Smucks at Free-Throws"): 13 points on 12 FGA (6-12); 20% from the line (1-5).

Delonte "I'm the Shooting Guard, They're the Scorers" West: 8 points on 6 FGA (3-6) in 38 minutes.

And, finally, my only other player for the night, Russell Westbrook (aka "Guile" aka "The Unexpected Fantasy Curse Remover" aka "Soon to Be My Newest Personal Stat Curse"): a triple double!!

However... Westbrook had 17 points on 18 FGA (6-18 or, 33%).

Didn't y'all mention something about how, when a player ends up with more FGA than FGs, he fails? And, I don't see 8 points on 6 shots as a whole lot better (especially in 38 minutes).

I wonder how many KBA's my team racked up tonight.

To expound on the Duke thing, I also hate college teams that are annual powerhouses. NBA is about free agency and being the best. College is about acad--bwahahaha!

Sorry. I couldn't finish that with a straight face. But I do feel that college should have more parity. And I think it's even worse in the NBA that the good teams that make the NCAA money get away with extreme bias and extra lee-way with violations.

What's weird is that I loathe Duke, but for some reason I really respect coach K. He seems like a class act - which means either I got on that failboat or that Dick Vitale is the source of all evil. Or both.

The only team that should be continually good is Purdue. But, of course, god hates Indiana teams. *sigh*

i don´t know if it was already mentioned, this sequence from detroits fabio is freakin awesome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gKdZ6pb0jA

also check out his hilarious dunk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cza2yIk_yU

fabio is tha man

correction - "And I think it's even worse THAN in the NBA..."

derp.

it reminds me a lot of that "corey maggette travels 6 times" youtube clip from a few weeks ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN_ljDfevB0

hmmm...what school did he go to again?

@ BadDave: Yeah, I too hate Duke but respect coach K (even though he's a smarmy, money-grubbing, ass-kissing, right wing asshole, the man is a great coach, and I respect that.)

@ Yams: There are a number of reasons to hate Duke.
1) They're a classic bandwagon team: easily the biggest in college hoops. They've got that glamour like the Lakers and the Yankees, so people all over the country love them, but real basketball fans (and the locals) don't.
2) They always have at least one really uptight prick of a white guy who is a great shooter but not really that great of a ballplayer (and rarely a great athlete).
3) They're almost goody goody. OK, everybody is sick of college athlete thugs, but need they go so far in the opposite direction?
4) They're a college for wealthy prep school silver spooner elites, and there ain't much room for ordinary folks.
5) And it's all a sham. The campus is incredibly contrived: it looks like Harvard/Yale/Princeton to the T, yet the whole thing was built post-1900. In other words, they said, "hey, let's look all Ivy-Leaguey." It's OK when it comes to you naturally (with, y'know, 300+ years of history). it's another thing when you try too hard.
6) The school was built on tobacco money, ie blood money. So, you can think about how many people were in an early grave to make the Duke family uber-wealthy.
7) The Duke family became uber-wealthy by exploiting enormous numbers of slaves. OK, lots of people tried to do it back in the day, but few succeeded to that degree.
8)Coach K looks like a rat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYOgC2Qbqh4

Yams, I'm surprised a well-educated man like yourself wouldn't already be aware of all the reasons to hate duke.

I'll add a little to what these fine gentlemen have already posted.

Mostly, I hate the NCAA basketball because I feel it's a group of haves holding back the have-nots. You've got teams like duke who get all the calls and in the postseason take that to such a ridiculously high level that if your team has to play duke you know you are toast. No way the refs let you beat that team. As my fighting Illini found out in the 2004 national championship game, teams like the tar heels and duke have the refs on their side.