[NU Sports] Big Ten hoops!!!

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

> To provide a contrasting view, as an
> NU alum, I can relate far more to Duke than to Wisconsin.
> Doesn't Duke basketball represent what we wish we could
> become in that sport? - Jim B.

Perhaps back in the '80s, when they were the little underdog who could, with their amazing Final Four runs year after year by players who might not be NBA stars but hustled, were smart and played well as a team.

But around the mid '90s, the Dookies became "the Man" in college basketball -- the Yankees, the Domers, etc. It was kind of like the Red Sox' World Series, winning it all took away their charm and turned Duke into "one of them." It didn't help that Laettner was the college hoops version of Tebow, but with a mean streak.:)

But what really turned it for me seemed to be the class with Brand, Maggette, etc. After that, Duke was just another hoops factory with one-and-done players who really weren't student athletes anymore (exceptions like Battier aside), a coach who took on Dean Smith's mantle as the whiner clinging to the ref to get calls every game and arrogant fans. Coach K became a bit full of himself, running up the score (he often leaves his starters in waaaay after games are over and thus fails to develop a bench ... which hurts at tourney time). The Crazies became the Cockies and the Duke of old was now Dook.

They have been humbled a bit in recent years with a Final Four and title drought (by their terms) and the resurgence of Carolina and have become a team of three-point preppies without much inside presence.

I'm not saying I agree with all of that - but if they were a politician, people would say that Duke has much higher "negatives" now than they did in the 80s and even early 90s. They're still a great program and Coach K is still the Wooden of today, but they're not as likable.

So it's fun to see a Big Ten team that in many ways resembles what Duke of the 80s was like Wisconsin beat them.

And it's even more fun to see ACC fans silenced a bit with the hoops season under way. It would be like watching a college football season where the SEC wasn't a factor in the title game and John Saunders and the Mimbo were talking about how down the SEC was. One can hope!:)

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

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STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!!