I Hate Duke!

On Sunday afternoon, Duke forward Gerald Henderson gave me yet another reason to hate Duke men's basketball.  Let me lay the ground work because I do have good reasons. 

 Laettner says "I'M A FRUIT-LOOP EVERYBODY!!!!"

#1.  Duke All-American center Christian Laettner stomping on Kentucky forward Aminu Timberlake during a game on March 28, 1992.  Every college basketball fan remembers this game.  Duke won the game on a last second shot, 104-103, by Laettner.  Personally, and searching the net I've found out I am not the only person who will remember the game for Laettner not being called for a technical for going out of his way to stomp on Timberlake's chest.

#2  Duke always has won.  Always.  Two straight titles in 1991 and 1992.  Also doesn't help that they were beating my Larry Johnson-led UNLV Running Rebels and Michigan's great Fab Five (Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, etc) for the titles.  Hate Duke was my phrase of the 1990's. 

#3.  Duke has an arrogance about them that they are the greatest.  Winning is one thing.  Good for them, but they act as if everybody should just bow to them and give them games.  I think we are finding out what kind of a coach Mike Krzyzewski is by not winning with a team that doesn't have a ton of talent on it.  He doesn't have 12 McDonald's All-American's on his team and his team is middle of the pack in the ACC.  Win with mediocre talent Coach K and we'll give you some props (i.e. Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, had to throw that in there....).

 If Psycho T would have gotten the chance, he would have popped Henderson in the jaw...I would have too.

#4.  Sunday.  Duke freshman forward Gerald Henderson, with 14 seconds left on the clock, intentionally throwing an elbow at  North Carolina All-America center Tyler Hansbrough in UNC's 86-72 victory, breaking his nose.  This started with Duke calling a timeout with 53 seconds left in the game.  UNC was up by 13 points; the game was over.  Why was Duke calling a timeout exactly?  Basketball commentators were saying this morning they called it so Duke Coach Krzyzewski could prove a point.  UNC still had their starters in the game and he wanted to send a message.  If Coach K was trying to 'send a message' it's a complete joke.  Duke has come back from 10 points with a minute left to win a game (beating Maryland a couple years ago).  Second, Henderson made no effort to help Hansbrough up after sending an elbow to Hansbrough's nose which is gives me tingles when I see it. 

"If it were intentional then his hand would have been closed and he would have met him head on. To me that's what happened. It's unfortunate that the kid got hurt and all the blood. That's the way I see it. If I thought he did that intentionally, then I would suspend him for longer than a game. That's my take on it," Krzyzewski said.

That comment makes no sense Coach K.  Just because it wasn't a fist doesn't make it intentional?  Does he think we are stupid?  Figure it out.  You told him to do that. 

The Duke/North Carolina rivalry just added another notch, not that it needed anymore.  If you are a college basketball fan, you either love Duke or hate Duke.  My hatred runs deep for Duke and Gerald Henderson just made it a little deeper on Sunday. 

** I'm not the only one that hates Duke, read this.

** Also, ESPN senior writer writes that Duke's image has suffered a black eye.