ESPN.com published an article in late December asking if the unbeaten New England Patriots, owners of three Super Bowl rings in six years, can become “one of the most hated teams of all-time.” Accompanying the article was a poll asking fans “which team you hate the most” and “Duke Basketball — last 20 years” finished third out of 13. The third-place finish follows a recent ESPN the Magazine article suggesting Coach K has lost a little something and last season’s article ranking the “10 Most Hated Dukies,” among others that have run the gamut from playful and joking to malicious and hostile. After wondering for awhile how anyone could apply an emotion as powerful as hate to a college athletics team, I decided to investigate…
In Good Company
The teams joining Duke atop ESPN’s “Most Hated List” have all enjoyed prolific success in the past two decades, while sports have become more popular than ever and the media has transformed into an in-your-face, narrative-based, conflict-driven information provider. Facing a race with a diverse array of media outlets, competition from new forms of entertainment, and adapting to a fast-moving population, the media has frequently come to side with convenience. Extremes and conflict are amplified, and attention-grabbing headlines like “Most-Hated Dukies” become their own repeatable narratives. Applied to sports, “Just as the New York Yankees, USC Football and Duke Basketball can attest,” wrote Dime Magazine, “everyone wants to see the top dog fall on his face.”
WHY DUKE
ESPN
Duke Basketball’s ascent to “top dog” status in college hoops has run parallel to the unprecedented rise of ESPN, with Coach K’s first Duke season beginning a year after ESPN hit the air waves in 1979. Since originally intending to cover sports just in Connecticut, ESPN has established itself in popular culture with the most-visited sports website, a national radio presence, and TV networks in well over 100 million homes. In those homes, no professional team outside Major League Baseball has had more regular-season ESPN games than Duke Basketball. Furthermore, in ESPN history, no team in any sport at any level has had as high a percentage of its regular-season games televised by an ESPN network as the Blue Devils.
The primary reasons for all of the coverage, which has drawn the ire of fans who wonder why Duke occupies national airwaves so frequently, are consistent TV ratings and the fact that the most hated college team is also among the most loved. “I just met with some ESPN executives,” wrote ESPN’s Dick Vitale. “Part of the discussion was what a plus it is in the ratings when Duke is on the air. People want to watch Duke… They are very popular on ESPN.” Vitale continued, “It is even easy to make a case for the Blue Devils as America’s team, based on cable ratings. Duke holds the top two spots on ESPN’s most-viewed regular-season college games… The Blue Devils hold the top three spots on ESPN2…”
“Duke’s home games are events,” stated ESPN’s Andy Katz. “When Duke plays on the road, the Blue Devils are the biggest draw on every other schedule. No other school can sell out Madison Square Garden or the Meadowlands or places out West other than Duke, regardless of the opponent. The Blue Devils are a happening every season.” In other words, Duke games often involve some of the most electrifying environments, and the ESPN cameras follow, often with Dick Vitale in tow.
Vitale’s effusive praise of Duke and Coach K has bothered certain fans, leading some to refer to the man who called ESPN’s first college basketball game in 1979 as “Dukie V.” When asked about this, Vitale answered, “What is there for me to rip Duke? Sure, I love going to Duke and doing games. I love great basketball, I love excitement, and [Duke] has anything that anybody who loves basketball should really want. But Duke is part of society where a lot of people like to hate the guy that’s on top — whether it’s Duke, the Yankees, Notre Dame in football. I don’t apologize for praising Duke.”
Program Stability and Consistency
Vitale profusely praises all of the top teams, players and coaches each year, and it just so happens that in a sports era of overall unrest, Duke Basketball has maintained a remarkable steadiness. First, Coach K has been the face of the program for over 27 seasons. For perspective’s sake, storied programs Kentucky and UCLA have each had five different head coaches during that time. While numerous other schools have built new arenas, Cameron Indoor Stadium has remained Duke’s home and garnered recognition as basketball’s top venue by bothSports Illustrated and ESPN. Furthermore, Duke has welcomed a likable lineage of young men under Coach K who have taken pride in representing Duke and worked hard under great scrutiny.
“Year after year, Duke does seem to be led by ‘the Duke kid,’” said author Mitch Albom. “Don’t get me wrong. Other schools have their own versions of this player. But Duke seems to find them year after year. It is more than coincidence that connects Danny Ferry to Christian Laettner to Bobby Hurley to Grant Hill to Shane Battier to Jason Williams. It’s character.”
Even the Blue Devils who have exuded an on-court swagger that riled the emotions of opposing fans have been almost exclusively individuals that appreciated wearing the Duke uniform and respected college basketball. As a whole, Duke players have earned a reputation as “Duke kids” and this, combined with the ubiquity of Coach K and Cameron, leaves some opposing fans feeling besieged by the Blue Devils. In the ESPN article on the Patriots, Patrick Hruby wrote, “It’s surpassingly easy to hate a team or athlete you can’t avoid, and downright impossible to remain indifferent. Not when you’re bombarded with the same old faces, story lines and carbon copy magazine covers. Talk about no exit.” Duke’s success in the national spotlight has made the Blue Devils one of those teams with “no exit.”
Success in the National Spotlight
Each year, the national exposure of college hoops peaks during the NCAA Tournament. Since the NCAA Tournament changed to its modern format with 64 teams, the Blue Devils have won three national titles (most in the nation), reached 10 Final Fours (three more than any program), and advanced to seven NCAA title games (four more than any program). Additionally, since 1985, Duke has won 68 NCAA Tournament games (11 more than any other team). By winning big as coverage of college basketball’s signature event has surged, Duke has asserted itself into the national spotlight and on the brackets of fans worldwide.
Before the Big Dance, Duke has worked its way into the spotlight too. The Associated Press poll made its debut in 1949 when media members were looking for a formal way to determine which games to cover. The tradition has stuck ever since, as shows today such as SportsCenter use the polls to determine which highlights to air. As the media coverage of college basketball has grown, Duke has been ranked No. 1 in the nation in more different seasons (13) since 1985 than any other entire conference, leading to a proliferation of Blue Devil highlights and coverage. “It’s almost like a shadow in the back of your mind,” stated former Maryland player Byron Mouton. “You’re like ‘Dang, shadow, go away!’ But it’s always there. Duke’s always there.”
Duke’s individual player success on college basketball’s biggest stages has helped cast that shadow as well. Since 1985, Duke players have experienced continual success in the national awards, leading to the type of unwavering coverage devoted to the stars of college basketball that play on the highest-ranked teams. Already, Coach K has produced more National Players of the Year (seven winners, nine awards) and National Defensive Players of the Year (six winners, nine awards) than any coach in history. Since 1985, Duke’s 29 All-America selections (1.3 per year) lead college basketball by nine. “People get to know you when you wear a Duke uniform,” said 1998 National Defensive Player of the Year and current assistant coach Steve Wojciechowski. Even Duke’s fans, the Cameron Crazies, have evolved into a household name.
Cameron and the Crazies
The intimate size and unique look of Cameron Indoor Stadium coupled with Duke’s commitment to give its fans the best seats in the house have made the stadium a recognizable, loud and TV-friendly venue that embodies college basketball’s genuine energy. Sports business expert Darren Rovell found that a ticket to UNC at Duke is the second-toughest in sports behind only the Masters. There is no doubt that the Cameron Crazies have played a major role in establishing this atmosphere and demand through their commitment and creativeness. However, there is also no question that there are numerous fans of other schools that devote as much time as the Crazies to their respective teams. These fans do not receive the same amount of national attention and credit bestowed upon the Crazies, and resentment naturally may ensue, especially given the stereotypes both good and bad associated with the university the Crazies represent.
Duke University
Duke is certainly not the only well-regarded private university surrounded by terrific state colleges, but it is unique in several ways. First, Duke is the only southeastern university amongU.S. News & World Report’s top 15 schools. Second, among that top 15 group, Duke accounts for 10 of the 11 Final Fours reached in the NCAA Tournament’s modern era. This leaves Duke one of the lone schools mentioned in the same breath as many of the nation’s most prestigious academic schools, and the all-time great hoops programs as well. Thus, the Duke ubiquity is magnified in an uncommon way that elicits a medley of opinions, many of which involve Coach K.
Coach K
Coach K’s phenomenal success at Duke and the culture he has established within his program has opened the door to unbelievable opportunities that have served his family, Duke and college basketball well. For example, the Hall of Famer has been featured on national ad campaigns, has helped raise millions of dollars for charities, has opened a Durham community center, has his own XM radio show, and maybe most notably of all, was named the first-ever U.S. National Head Coach.
Shortly after Coach K was announced as the USA’s head coach, the following quote ran in The Baltimore Sun: “America’s most famous college team is again poised to raise its profile — and the ire of those who’ve seen it done before… Has any active coach ever wielded more influence than Krzyzewski?”
I suppose that anyone who spends almost 30 years in the public eye ends up with some kind of untouchable and polarizing aura. In Coach K’s case, on so many winter nights, the TV trucks drive in and set their cameras on the Duke game and the intense head coach. Later, they pack up and leave, with the media rarely showing the human side of Coach K or his players. In this sense, Coach K becomes the head of a perceived Duke machine that powers up for game nights, usually wins, and then does it all over again a few nights later, year after year. In part because of this cycle, it has become fashionable for the media to encourage the “love-to-hate Duke” camp and offer critical articles or comments.
“You still feel it now,” said former Duke player and current Oklahoma Head Coach Jeff Capel about the Duke hating. “It’s just something that’s there, and I think it’s there because of the success that Duke has had and because of the exposure that the Duke Basketball program receives. You’re on TV all the time. You have a coach that some people may look at as the face of college basketball. And the thing that I’ve learned just throughout life — not just through basketball, not through Duke — is that there’s jealousy. There’s jealousy, and jealousy leads to resentment. And I think that’s what you have with the Duke Basketball program.” When I think of the more antagonistic versions of the Duke hating that Capel refers to, two things came to mind: 1. Duke Basketball remains as relevant as ever. 2. A story my Dad shared with me recently about our black Labrador, Callie.
Knowledge is Power
My parents and Callie moved into a new Connecticut neighborhood in October. Callie is relentlessly loving and loyal, a wonderful friend to my entire family, and she considers her protective duties of my parents to be more important than the job detail of White House guards. Much to the chagrin of her new neighbors, Callie possesses a ferocious bark and employs it liberally. A young neighbor named Andrew stepped outside his home one day, became frightened after a quick introduction to Callie’s bark, and sprinted back into his house. From there, my Mom could see Andrew regularly eyeing Callie from his window with a fearful look in his eye, his understanding of Callie limited by the constrictions of a window pane. Eventually, my Mom went over and introduced the young neighbor to Callie. Since then, each interaction between dog and boy has intensified their friendship, with Callie now delighting in his visits (and dog bones), and Andrew smiling at every tail wag.
Just as Andrew’s perception of Callie was limited to what passed by his window, many sports fans that harbor harsh emotion towards Duke Basketball do so through their own kind of restrictive window that limits a more balanced understanding of the program. In my own case, as I have progressed from a sports fan in Connecticut with no Duke connections, to a Duke student, to a Duke Basketball employee, my passion for the team has grown every step of the way as I have increasingly grasped what Duke Basketball is about.
It started freshman year when I was randomly assigned to live on the same hall as Chris Duhon. You might think because he was a well-known, future-NBA point guard, he would be slightly condescending. Instead, he invited me and others into his dorm room to play video games, was friendly to everyone in our dorm, and went out of his way to secure a team-signed ball for me. The only way he could have been nicer was if he let me win in NBA 2K1 instead of drilling me by a double-digit margin.
Later in the year, I joined one of the tent groups in Krzyzewskiville. I was surprised when players like Shane Battier and Jason Williams visited, Coach K ordered everyone pizza at random times, and the Duke Head Coach gave his Sixth Man a detailed pep talk for over an hour. He also visited the freshmen class on a separate occasion shortly after our arrival on campus. “To Dave,” he wrote on a ball I still have, “Thanks for being on our team.”
Now, after more than seven years of being on the Duke team (1.5 as a Cameron Crazie, 2.5 years of student volunteering and three seasons working full-time), I understand Duke Basketball 100 times more completely than I did growing up in Connecticut. Then, I only knew what I saw on TV and what I read in the papers. Here is what I know now: The Duke program is about taking pride in everything you do, even when nobody is watching. It is about heart, spirit, emotion, passion, and love. It is about respecting the honor of being part of a team and family. It is about attention to detail. It is about communicating, trust, collective responsibility, and caring. It is about standards. It is about pursuing these values every day and having fun while doing it.
No one follows this recipe, as far I can tell, better than Coach K. His players past and present will tell you how he never takes a day off and remains as hungry as he was when he started at Duke. But more than that, his caring for everyone, even for a guy like me who is not a coach or player and has only been on staff a few years, is non-stop. The U.S. National Head Coach once phoned me wishing me a happy birthday during his family vacation, has written me random notes thanking me for being on our team, and overall has treated me as if the work I am doing is just about as important as the work Gerald Henderson is doing on Coach K Court. Everyone on the team will tell you, maybe best of all, that Coach K will always tell you the truth.
When you receive leadership at the top like this, you can only help but follow the lead, whether you are a future NBA player, an assistant coach, a manager, or a young staff member like me. In doing so, you learn each day, not necessarily another trick in Photoshop or a writing tip, but lessons that will help you become the best worker, leader, son, friend and future husband and father you can be. I have learned more in three years working for the basketball program than I did in four years of undergraduate studies, and I have never had a more fun or exciting time in my life. In 28 years, imagine how many players, coaches, managers and staff members there have been who joined the Duke Basketball program with an open mind and a willingness to work, and who became better people and had a heck of a time doing it.
All of this is not to say Duke is the only program where amazing things are happening, or Coach K is the only coach who loves his team, or Duke players are the sole standard-bearers for the consummate student-athlete, or media coverage overall is in any way a negative for Duke or college basketball. But I will say this: With the media’s increased insistence on extremes, pessimism and disagreement, and Duke Basketball doing what has it has done for almost three decades under Coach K, a paradox has emerged. The program receiving as much attention as any sporting entity this side of the Patriots and Yankees is college basketball’s best-kept secret.
