A story guarantees greatest Duke basketball season in history
By Matt Giles
Hopeful Duke basketball tears
In 1990, UNLV temporarily put us Duke basketball optimists in our place. That, of course, was to the tune of a 103-73 romp, which still stands as the NCAA’s all-time largest margin in the championship bout.
No problem. Although I had held naively ambitious sights leading up to that night, I understood then that the Runnin’ Rebels were the equivalent of a pro collection. Plus, I couldn’t much complain when considering the Blue Devils had just reached the Final Four in each of my first three seasons as a soul-on-the-line fan.
At that stage in my learning, I knew that was a big deal. More importantly, I had learned enough to know for certain that, despite the naysayers in the media pointing to some monkey that Duke’s young treasure couldn’t get off his back, Mike Krzyzewski must still hold the key to the promised land.
And I was slowly learning not to let my brother’s pointed laughter ruin any stops along the ride.
We should all know what happened next, but here’s a hint: it forced my brother to temporarily hop on the Duke basketball bandwagon…