Everyone Hates Duke - Are They Really Different This Year?

Obviously the story lines for this year’s Final Four stink. There are not a ton of stories because of the lackluster teams and the lack of star players. Instead we started the week with a bogus story about Tom Izzo being offered the Oregon job (side note – Oregon hired the worst recruiter in the history of the world. They were hired to target coaches and they came up with…..drumroll……….Tom Izzo. Really? That’s what they got paid for? What did they do for research – open the newspaper and watch SportsCenter? Everyone knows Izzo is the best coach in the sport. Why not just throw Coach K, Jim Boeheim and Roy Williams out there as candidates?). In other breaking news……Katy Perry can fill out a bikini. And now we’re on to an even more ridiculous story about why people hate Duke and whether it’s warranted that people dislike them.

People dislike Duke for a multitude of reasons, including jealousy, rivalry, ignorance and stupidity. And at the end of the day, so what? I’m not going to go through the reasons and prove or debunk them because people are locked into their opinions. People are not going to change their minds because some sportswriter pens a diatribe about how this year’s Duke team is different than the past teams and their dislike is “an outdated cliché.” Dude, your article is a waste of time. Let people dislike teams like Duke or Notre Dame or the Yankees with absolutely no sane reason for it. That’s part of being a fan.

More interesting to me was the notion that this Duke team is really different than those previous teams that everyone disliked. Are they? They have a tough-nosed white point guard who can shoot from the outside, an athletic wing man, and a tweener white guy who is more athletic than he looks and can shoot or go inside and they are coached by a guy that looks like an owl. That was Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill, Christian Laettner and Coach K in the early ‘90’s. It was JJ Reddick, DeMarcus Nelson, Josh McRoberts and Coach K in the middle of the 2000’s. And now it is Jon Scheyer, Nolan Smith, Kyle Singler and Coach K. It is the exact same formula Coach K has always employed. And feel free to make your comparisons of Cherokee Parks to the Plumlee brothers or to Greg Zoubek.

So this year’s team is pretty much a clone of previous Blue Devil squads. Feel free to hate on them if you want, as long as you understand that disliking any team is almost always based on nothing rational. My guess is Duke doesn’t really care what you think of them and that your feelings about them will have less than no impact on whether they can get past the Mountaineers on Saturday night.

Weekend Hangover - Love/Hate: Down to Four

LOVE

- Coaching carried teams to the Final Four this year:

o This is probably the most surprising and least talented team Tom Izzo has taken to the big stage, but like all of his teams they were tougher and more disciplined than their opponents. His decision to intentionally miss the final free throw after taking a one point lead with 1.8 seconds left was genius, despite the officials screwing up the clock (you have to have possession to call time out, and the clock is supposed to stop when the official recognizes the time out, not when it is called. According to the refs, that all took 0.2 seconds). However the other positive outcome from Izzo’s decision was that Tennessee couldn’t run the baseline like they could after a made basket. As much as it pains me to say it, Izzo is THE best coach in all of college basketball, hands down, without question. 6 Final Fours in 15 years is beyond impressive.

o Mike Krzyzewski has taken some heat in the past decade that he has taken his focus off of leading Duke to the Final Four and that he is coasting after all of his success in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Well, he’s back in the Final Four with a team that plays as well together as any team in recent memory. This is his 11th trip to the Final Four with the Blue Devils and you can very easily make the case that the winner of the Duke-West Virginia semifinal will be the overwhelming favorite to cut down the nets. He is the Cindy Crawford of coaches in that he continually gets it done even as the years pile up.

o West Virginia confused and confounded Kentucky with their 1-3-1 zone and Bob Huggins outcoached John Calipari. As great of a recruiter as Calipari has proved to be, he had no X’s or O’s to solve a defense where the base at the bottom of the zone was a point guard and Coach Cal couldn’t find a way to get his big men the ball against the undersized Joe Mazzulla. Bob Huggins is back in the Final Four for the first time since 1992. But don’t listen to any interviews with him this week because he sounds as enthusiastic about it as Russell Crowe is about the papparazzi.

- Speaking of West Virginia, the prospect of hearing “Take Me Home, Country Roads” blasting from the Lucas Oil Arena while the Mountaineers cut down the nets is becoming more and more of a reality. Nothing like a little John Denver magic for a theme song.

- It is probably part of the Coach K leadership, but the poise of Duke was among the key contributors to their victory over Baylor. The game was already teetering on slipping away with 1:30 left when Baylor gets a technical foul for absolutely stupidity. It iced a game that was slipping away. Why are you trying to intimidate a guy and get up in his face when you’re down 7 with under 2 minutes left in the game? As athletically talented as Baylor is, I’m pretty sure most of their team could not spell Duke if you gave them the D and the U.

- If you need something to fire you up for work this week (especially if you’re anywhere in the Eastern US where rain is punishing the entire coast), just check out the Gus Johnson soundboard and listen to his classic quotes and yells. Among my favorites is the “Rise and Fire” or the “Slipper” where Gus proclaims “…and the slipper still fits!” with the excitement of a guy who just got out of the movie where Amanda Seyfried get naked.

HATE

- Is this the worst Final Four every? While we have coaching stars in this year’s Final Four, there are not a lot of intriguing player story lines or very exciting players to watch. There is not an All-American candidate in the Final Four, which has only happened once in the past 10 years. In 2006, when no #1 seeds made the tournament (#2 UCLA, #3 Florida, #4 LSU & #11 George Mason) there were no All-American candidates, and that Final Four was not very interesting. Even in 1980, the other time when a #1 seed did not make the Final Four, Joe Barry Carroll of Purdue and Darrell Griffith of Louisville were All-American candidates. However, despite the surprise teams and lack of exciting players, it is tough to say this is the worst Final Four ever (despite my texts asking exactly that to my brother and Sal on Saturday night). At least this year has the coaches and a #1 seed still playing in it.

- Well I mentioned last week that West Virginia wanted to ugly up the basketball like Sarah Jessica Parker to have a chance to win. Well, they definitely did that on Saturday night. The Mountaineers did not hit a single 2 point basket in the entire first half of the game, going 0-16 from inside the arc. And Kentucky didn’t hit a 3 point shot until there were less than 4 minutes left in the entire game, ending up shooting 4-32 from beyond the arc. That was about as painful as your girlfriend forcing you to watch that Remember Me movie with the vampire guy and some random girl.

- Why do teams call timeouts after baskets in the final minute when they are down more than five points? For the past few years, the clock stops after a made basket, so there is no need to call time out. I get the concept of “setting up your defense” but when you are already down more than 5 points, you probably need the scramble to have a better chance at a steal and a turnover. You are going to foul immediately, so why bother with the timeout? Wouldn’t you be better served to save the time out for when you potentially get a rebound or steal in the final seconds and need to set up a play or stop the clock for a full-court heave? Just a random thing I noticed that teams call the time out to stop the clock when it is already stopped.

- Did anyone else notice the crowd in Houston for the Duke-Baylor game? It was heavily in favor of Baylor, which makes sense with the proximity to their Waco campus, but it also appeared very sparse on television. The game was played in the cavernous Reliant Stadium – home of the NFL’s Texans – so maybe it was just some of the angles that the television cameras were catching, but there appeared to be an inordinate number of empty seats for a regional final game. Is that a bad sign for next year’s Final Four which will be played in that exact venue? There will likely be the same neutral court issues in the Final Four next year, so will it be a full stadium?

Lessons Learned from the NCAA Tournament

Well, after getting slaughtered by the second round of the tournament (7 of the sweet 16? Embarrassing!), it’s time for the autopsy to determine what went wrong and what can be improved when picking the sweet sixteen games.

First, since everyone is talking about the “health care reform” package that moved closer to reality, I found a hilarious quote. I don’t actually care what side of the political wall you fall on, you have to appreciate this sentiment: “Shove it down our throats now; we’ll shove it up you’re a$$ in November.” Classic angry protesters. I also found it interesting that the approval rating for the Skeletor look-alike, Nancy Pelosi, was 8%. That’s not a typo. EIGHT percent. 92% of the people disapprove of you. As bad as my picks were for the tournament, I got a lot more than 8% right.

Lesson #1: Offense can trump defense

I’m not ready to declare defense dead, but in this year’s tournament, offense was the king. Kansas had the 5th ranked defense (efficiency adjusted according to Ken Pomeroy), and was shredded by the Northern Iowa attack. Temple and Wisconsin were among the best in the country for fewest points allowed per game. Cornell shot over 50% against both teams and lit them up for 78 and 87 points. Pittsburgh plays a tough physical defensive style, yet it was no match for the offense of Jordan Crawford of Xavier. Obviously, offense is easier on the eyes, much like it was much more enjoyable to watch Erin Andrews on Dancing With the Stars than it was to watch the heavy set woman from Reno 911 (I legit don’t know her name, don’t really care and am too lazy to look it up). Side note: Andrews was fairly impressive on the dancing show but I have less than zero standing to judge dancing, as in my opinion the best dancing I have seen was Usher & Chris Tucker dancing a tribute to Michael Jackson.

Lesson #1 in the Sweet 16: Duke vs. Purdue
Purdue has gotten to the sweet 16 despite the loss of Robbie Hummel by redoubling their defensive focus and holding Siena and Texas A&M to 64 and 61 points, respectively. They will attempt to apply that same defensive grind to the shooting attack of Duke which is led by the perimeter trio of Jon Scheyer, Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler. Will the physical defense of Chris Kramer, E’Twaan Moore and JaJuan Johnson be able to keep the Blue Devils in check? Purdue also was able to harness the lack of respect card (even the President picked them to lose in the first round), but that motivation may wear out by the time the second weekend rolls around.

Lesson #2: Coaching Matters

In the one-and-done format of the NCAA tournament, coaching is critical, especially for the second game of the weekend. The best veteran coaching minds in the game, Tom Izzo, Jim Boeheim, and Thad Motta are still alive. Joining them are the young impressive coaches like Cornell’s Steve Donahue, Northern Iowa’s Ben Jacobsen and Kansas State’s Frank Martin. These coaches have the ability to make adjustments during the game like Tom Izzo after his team lost Kalin Lucas, or the ability to rally his team to believe they can beat anyone like Ben Jacobsen and Steve Donahue. It’s much like Buzz Aldrin on Dancing With the Stars, who was brave to try dancing at 80 years old, but definitely could not really do the required dancing. Yet because he had a good dance partner/coach, he was able to go out there and not embarrass himself.

Lesson #2 in the Sweet 16: Michigan State vs. Northern Iowa
If someone told you there was going to be a matchup with a team that just beat the top-seeded team in the tournament against another team that just lost its best player to a torn Achilles tendon, it would sound like a mismatch. If you then add in that the first team is a mid-major and the second team lost its top player, yet hails from the best conference in college basketball, you might hesitate for a second. And finally, if you find out that the team that lost its best player has the game’s best coach on its sideline, now you’re really struggling with picking the game. That’s exactly what’s happening with the Northern Iowa and Michigan State game. Tom Izzo is the best coach in the country during March, and he is the only reason you don’t count out Michigan State to beat Northern Iowa.

Lesson #3: Success Formula for Non-Majors

Some people are claiming that parity has arrived in college basketball. I don’t buy it. Every couple years the tournament has a season when there are an inordinate amount of upsets, everyone claims we’ve never seen a tournament like that before, and the next year we get three #1 seeds in the final four. I think what’s more interesting than the potential parity is that the teams from the non-major conferences that are having success have found a formula for success: An intelligent coach, a serviceable big man and one star shooter/scorer with the rest of the team guys that can knock down jumpers. Look at Cornell – a strong coach, 7-foot center, a son of an NBA player who can fill it up, and then a cast of screeners who are capable of knocking down a jumper on occasion. St. Mary’s has a big man in Omar Samhan and surrounds him with a bunch of Australian guys who can shoot from anywhere. Butler has effective size and bunch of guards who knock down open three-pointers. It’s the same formula Davidson used with Steph Curry. It’s the same formula George Mason used in 2006 with Jai Lewis inside and Tony Skinn & Will Thomas on the perimeter.

Lesson #3 in the Sweet 16: Cornell vs. Kentucky
Cornell will take that formula into their battle with top-seeded Kentucky this weekend. The Big Red will hope that their disciplined application of the formula will be enough to frustrate the young Wildcats. Side note – why are the supposed “smart” people in the Ivy league too dumb to come up with a better nickname for their teams than a color? The Cornell Big Red and the Harvard Crimson. Rally around a color? Syracuse is the Orange, but that was a change to political pressure from the former name Orangemen. Anyway – back to the point…..Cornell will try to ride the hot shooting to overcome the major talent gap between its players and those at Kentucky. If Cornell can stay hot from the outside and their big guy can slow the inside game of DeMarcus Cousins, the Big Red has a chance to stay in the game.

Squirrel is Live From Miami & Overhyped Super Bowl Stories

Before we get to this week's rankings, I have to mention the impressive showing by the Wisconsin Badgers in dismantling Michigan State last night. The Badgers were hot from the field and shredded the Spartan defense all night. There's nothing more satisfying than watching Tom Izzo cry on the sidelines when his team is getting is arse handed to them in every aspect of the game. Izzo is a great coach (5 Final Fours in 11 years speaks for itself), but I have never seen someone cry or whine so much. He doesn't get angry or yell at officials, he just pouts and whines to them. It's really pathetic to watch. Tommy, face it, Bo owns you at the Kohl Center. It's just reality.

It’s ranking time and with the Super Bowl just a few short days away, let’s rank the stories that have been and will continue to be beaten into the ground before kickoff. Starting with the least annoying and ending with the stories that have already been killed and should be let go.

But first, we received word from none other than the Squirrel, who is on location in Miami with a first hand report. Squirrel has officially become the roving reporter for the site after his report from Alabama during the national championship game, and here are a couple of highlights from Miami. It sounds like he’s enjoying himself already.

Let your readers know that Miami is beautiful and that if they are considering making the trip for the Superbowl, it is highly recommended. We got here on media day, which was notoriously rained out.. but things have improved tremendously. Today, my wife and I laid out at the beach, then the pool, then went back to the beach. Its 70s and sunny. Superbowl week in Miami is way better than the National Championship week in Alabama. A few tips: Sunny Iles Drive is one of the shortest paths from the Superbowl to the beach. Sunny Iles drive = MLK blvd. (remember what Chris Rock said about MLK drive? If not, watch this – starting about the 30 second mark.) don't worry, things clear up and you make it to the beach where everything is good. Turn right at the ocean and Southbeach and the rich folks are down there.

95.7 is not the oldies channel, like it is in Milwaukee. If you only speak english, put this at pre-set #1. All Espanol all the time. Love it. We were jamming it in the red mustang convertible driving to the hotel; the locals were impressed. Finally, we saw the Goodyear blimp cruising over Miami beach today. Probably taking some film for footage to show during the game.. So if you see it, be prepared that, unfortunately for us, and those like us, the ratio of banana hammocks to thongs is 1.5 to 1. Maybe its a bad time of year. And to be clear, not many of the aforementioned people should be sporting such items.

Thank you field reporter, Squirrel!! Now on to the overhyped stories for the week:

5 – Tim Tebow’s anti-abortion ad.

This is not the forum to discuss pro-life or pro-choice. I don’t really care what stance you have, it’s your right to have that opinion one way or the other. Tim Tebow also has that right to have an opinion and considering his story (his mother was encouraged to abort her pregnancy due to medical complications and she chose to have the baby, which grew into Tim), how could you blame him for having that stance? The issue is whether the NFL/CBS can control whether to show it. If they open up the lid to this ad, then the next step will be an ad for the opposing view and then we’ll get ads for and against political candidates. It’s a slippery slope away from funny beer and internet commercials that people actually enjoy watching during the game.

4 – Kyle Eckel

I won’t rehash the details here, as Gregg Doyel does a much better job of it here. It’s just a strange story without any clear answers, but if Eckel does anything in the game, Jim Nantz and Phill Simms will beat the story into the ground. Speaking of Jim Nantz, did everyone see his guest appearance on How I Met Your Mother on Monday night? Fantastic. Definitely worth a replay. He came across as funny, and a regular guy, which is the opposite of how he came off during his divorce when his wife accused him of wanting to hang a 15 foot painting of himself in their living room.

3 – Colt’s Shun Perfection

If the Colts win the game, there will be an endless stream of people in the media making the following statement “The Colts won every game they gave full effort in, so they could have went 19-0.” Life doesn’t work like that, people. For all we know, if Peyton had stayed in the game against the Jets, Calvin Pace might have broken free and left a “remember me” shot (thanks Gregg Williams!) on Peyton that could have ended his season. Or maybe Reggie Wayne twists an ankle. Or….you get the point. It's the "Butterfly Effect" in that one little change in the past has huge ripple effects on the future. There is no telling what could or would have happened. The Colts believed resting their players was the best decision to help them win the Super Bowl. If they win on Sunday, that resting decision was the best decision they could have made. That’s all that matters.

2 – Dwight Freeeney’s Ankle

I’m not saying his ankle isn’t a huge deal in determining who will win the game. He is the best player on the fast Colts defense and his ankle will slow him significantly if he is able to play at all. I just don’t want to hear about it on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday. It is not going to heal overnight. It’s just not. Anyone who has busted up an ankle like this is well aware of how little changes in 1 day. Yet we’re going to get doctors, witch doctors, psychics and that guy who sings “Pants on the Ground” to weigh in on whether Freeney will be able to play. Speaking of gruesome injuries, check out the picture of Brett Favre’s ankle after the NFC Championship. While I don’t like him as a person, you cannot argue with the dude’s toughness.

1 – Kim’s Boyfriend, Reggie Bush

We get it, Kim Kardashian is a star because she looks great in a dress or a bikini. Wait, has she ever done anything to be famous other than make a sex tape with Brandi’s little brother, Ray-Jay? Well, her step-father is Olympic gold medalist Bruce Jenner, does that make her famous? Nope, not really. Has she acted? Nope. Anyway, we’re going to get bombarded with stories about whether her and Reggie are going to get married, and plenty of shots of the entire Kardashian crew traveling to the game together. The real story is whether Reggie can have an impact on the game the way he did against the Cardinals. Because if he does, there is a chance the Saints will give him a nice fat contract extension. If he doesn’t, it’s going to raise questions on whether he is worth the investment and the Saints could cut him loose from their backfield which already contains solid backs like Pierre Thomas and Mike Bell.