At the root of criticism about Duke basketball are just some hurt feelings.
You had to make me do it. I was having a good summer, and like the basic white girl I am at heart, I was excited about fall. Fall means football, football leads to Thanksgiving (the greatest holiday), Thanksgiving leads to bowl games, bowl games lead to Christmas, and Christmas leads to Duke basketball playing a conference schedule.
This symbiotic change of seasons — and in effect, life events — is how yours truly stays chipper and smiling. Happier than a pig on taco night even with the horrors and angst of the world around me.
Oh, and I almost forgot, sprinkled in that aforementioned timeline of joy is a holiday week tourney or two, mainly around Thanksgiving week, which includes such gems as the Maui Invitational, Orlando Invitational, NIT Season Tip-Off, and of course, Battle 4 Atlantis (see, I told you Thanksgiving is the best).
Enter 2020, a year that has been different in so many ways for everyone. Sports, for so long, was the ultimate escape, the consistent distraction, and the reliable friend you can always set a calendar to.
The 2020-2021 season seems to be subject to the whims of this year, however. Duke, along with every other team, is scrambling to make something of this season, and with a worldwide pandemic that is proving more of a headache than anyone could have thought.
The NCAA non-conference slate is under attack as COVID-19 is causing the prestigious and stacked preseason tournaments mentioned earlier in this article to change plans. In the case of your Duke Blue Devils, they were scheduled to take part in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
With player and coach safety in mind, the traditional tournament played in the Bahamas has been canceled. Not willing to admit defeat and revenue loss so easily, the powers that be proposed moving the Battle 4 Atlantis to South Dakota.
Our fearless leader and coach, Mike Krzyzewski, has respectfully declined the invite, instead proposing Duke basketball’s own tournament in Cameron Indoor Stadium (tentatively set for Dec. 4-5). The tournament would be every bit as stacked and would focus on social justice issues important to players and fans.
Remember when I mentioned I was excited about the fall? See how I used the past tense there? There’s a reason for the ire, folks.
Someone — I’m not going to say who because Lord knows they don’t need any publicity — suggested that Coach K is a coward for proposing his own hometown tournament. This someone writes for a blog about this other team who plays down the road from our beloved Blue Devils.
ALSO READ: Writer implies Coach K is a coward
Needless to say, there’s bad blood between our two programs. And although Taylor Swift was wrong in saying we used to have mad love between us, we always had respect.
We can respect a program with six national titles (nope, not seven) and countless NBA stars (yet not so much of late). We can especially respect a coach whose been around just about as long as our GOAT and seems to love his players (well, maybe not the players on last year’s 14-19 squad) just as much as Coach K does his own.
The Duke basketball head coach deserves only envy from rival fans
Ball Durham has already covered last year’s results in games between our two storied programs (some might even say ad nauseam), but needless to say, they’re not exactly cowardly displays. Yet what I’m going to touch on is why Coach K doesn’t — and shouldn’t — have to explain himself to ANYONE.
Two reasons…two big reasons which should make his actions above judgment from any mere mortal in the world of college hoops.
No. 1, he has won five national championships in his 41 years at the helm of the Blue Devils, the first few years of which were spent with losing records and going through significant growing pains.
In other words, unlike this other program’s coach I know, Coach K had to build his program all by himself. He didn’t have the storied history and reputation to help get his teams off training wheels.
No. 2, he has done more as a representative and ambassador for this game we love than any coach before him. Now, to be fair, he’s got the advantage of an ever-reaching social media platform and the clout of one-and-done NBA megastars hanging around his facilities.
But those stars are a result of Coach K guiding the rest of the sheep through the one-and-done era and being able to adapt like no other old GOAT can. He will surely lead the Blue Devils into this upcoming era of two-and-dones as well, setting an example of class and leadership along the way.
After five nattys and three Olympic golds, not to mention fostering some of the greatest talents both on the bench and on the court, the Duke basketball legend owes nobody anything. But you can rest assured that Coach K will continue to give 100 percent of himself to the sport he helped make great.
And while we’re all entitled to our opinions — looking at you, rival writer — sometimes your opinions, much like your germs in this time of woe and want, should be kept to yourself.
P.S. I lied, I’m totally going to touch on the games between Duke basketball and said rival program last year. Enjoy…
And now, Part Two…
Stay tuned to Ball Durham for more Duke basketball news and views.