Apparently, Duke basketball just lacks the guts to pull off a 14-19 season.
According to Michael McKay of Tar Heel Blog, Duke basketball’s Mike Krzyzewski fell short of the glory of his nemesis last week by pulling out of the field that was originally set to comprise the annual Battle 4 Atlantis (which, by the way, has decided to skip 2020 and isn’t affiliated with the folks pushing to host the squads in South Dakota).
Krzyzewski is instead planning his own multi-team event for Dec. 4-5 in Cameron Indoor Stadium as a way to celebrate social-justice activism. And in case the 41st-year Duke basketball head coach needs approval from McKay, he should know that the UNC writer does in fact view the social-justice component as “good and commendable.” Good to know.
ALSO READ: Coach K’s event to include two former Blue Devils
But as for Coach K backing out of a promise to an entity to play in a tournament that said entity now won’t even put its name on, well, that just crosses some moral line in McKay’s eyes:
“Leaving a tournament that you committed to play in to host your own tournament that will compete for an audience, on your OWN CAMPUS, is bad and deserving of ridicule.”
Right. Meanwhile, Krzyzewski’s North Carolina counterpart, Roy Williams, remarkably had the sheer valor — please recognize the sarcasm here — to keep his team in the Maui Invitational despite its temporary move to Asheville, N.C. (which, by the way, is 1,000 miles closer to Tobacco Road than Sioux Falls, S.D.).
Painting Coach K as a scaredy-rat and Ol’ Roy as the embodiment of all that is gallantly holy, McKay admittedly intended to “illustrate and honor Roy Williams’s moral fortitude, dignity, and courage to play true road games, in direct contrast to the craven, cowardly Dracula in Durham…”
It’s unfair for Duke basketball to confine its road magic to the Dean Dome?
Yup, the tired drivel from Chapel Hill has officially come out of quarantine. Perhaps in an effort to distract his fellow Heels from remembering that UNC boasts an 8-14 record across its past 22 games — no matter the venue — and the fact that Chapel Hill mayor Wendell Moore (replay Feb. 8 below) is now a Duke basketball sophomore, McKay made no secret his déjà-poo narrative:
“It’s not a secret in college basketball that Coach K does not like playing true road games in his non-conference schedule. If it weren’t for the fact that he is contractually obligated to play a true road game against a B1G team every other season, he would surely be content to play every non-conference game on his schedule in Cameron or Madison Square Garden.”
Next, McKay fell completely off his rocker while serving up filet-mignon-flavored Ol’ Roy treats:
“Roy Williams, by contrast, is a Road Warrior. He is Animal and Hawk. He is not afraid to play true road games at power conference schools like Texas, Tennessee, and Stanford. He is not afraid to play true road games at small schools near the hometowns of his players like Northern Iowa, Evansville, and Penn. He is not afraid to play true road games at schools far from home en route to the Maui Invitational like UC Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, and Hawai’i.”
Finally, after crowing about UNC’s fearless 1-2 clip in some random true road games — against UAB, Wofford, and Gonzaga — McKay capped off his “Roy Williams is not a coward!” campaign by seemingly calling on his readers to reassure him that everything is indeed OK despite the 2019-20 Heels’ 14-19 record, including two statement losses to Coach K’s spineless Blue Devils:
“These are only three of many examples of true non-conference road games that Roy Williams has played as head coach of North Carolina. What are some other memorable ones that I didn’t include? Biggest wins, worst losses? Let us know in the comments! And if you want to just rag on Coach K for not having the stones to play away games like Ol’ Roy, then by all means give it a go!”
Man, lucky for Ol’ Roy & Co. that Chapel Hill co-mayor Tre “Stones” Jones isn’t still around in the Duke basketball program to remind the Heels what true road stones look like…
Stay tuned to Ball Durham for more news and views regarding all things Duke basketball.