The Fine Art of Duke-Hating

Yesterday I purchased The Duke Basketball Bluebook: a Guide to the 2012 NCAA Tournament for my Kindle.  I've since read it and, quite frankly, I'm disappointed.  I can't give this little tome (and I do mean little for $9.95) high marks.  In fact, the book seems to be a ploy to glean money from unsuspecting and naive Dukies like me.

My wife, of course, has been pointing out my gullibility for years.  I am, after all, the same man who once purchased "sea monkeys" from an ad in the back of a comic book, as well as the guy who shelled out $9.95 to Charles Atlas, who promised me that I would grow muscles and no longer be the wimp on the beach.  I have also ordered items from the Home Shopping Network, supported Ronco Products for years, and I came dangerously close to asking for a Snuggie and a ShamWow for Christmas last year.

I should know better . . . especially with my M.Div degree from Duke, where I studied under the illustrious tutelage of professors who were world-renown in their respective disciplines and who warned me about the evils of attending basketball games at Cameron Indoor Stadium.  

Back in those days I had season tickets (no waiting), and the early returns on Coach-K's 2nd season was that he would soon be a demi-god.  We studied about him in our seminary classes.  However, there was not yet any Coach-K campground or Coach-K Court and the Cameron stands were not yet filled to capacity (and its a SMALL arena) . . . a guy like me could stand courtside next to the bench and actually talk to the players between timeouts.  I did get to see Johnny Dawkins though, arguably the best player to ever don a Duke uniform (take a look at his stats or listen to Coach K talk about the top players and you'll see what I mean).

The Duke Bluebook, however, is left wanting.  And it's easy to see why so many people hate Duke, now that folks are publishing Duke's scouting reports and using Duke basketball analysis to discuss the other teams.  But the Bluebook needs to give me more than just a Duke report card and a few paragraphs on the other ACC teams in this year's NCAA tournament.

Okay, but I did learn one thing I didn't know about the Duke BB team this year.  One stat.  This Duke team led the ACC conference in 3-pointers-made by the widest margin in conference history.  This team shoots a bunch of 3's.

And they will live or die by them.

Some team this year will either love that about Duke, or hate them for it.  And stats show that if they hit 10 or more in a game, they win.