Like most Duke fans, we're still quite upset about what happened to Mrs.
Boozer and the level of violence at Cole Field House. And while we urge everyone
to write letters to anyone you can think of to protest it - Maryland officials,
Dick Vitale, the Washington Post - the fact that Maryland has yet to apologize
or even to acknowledge the disgraceful violence which left Mrs. Boozer with a concussion,
we're not holding our breath waiting for accountability from those yahoos.
The Boozers could certainly choose to force an apology with a lawsuit, and who
could blame them?
However, we're thinking that rather than meekly back down, next year Duke
fans should go in force, and should go in with an army of video cameras, and
film any evidence of hooliganism whatsoever. If we showed up with 100 high
quality video cameras and turned them on the crowd at the slightest sign of
trouble, we'd have an excellent chance of catching some of these criminals in
action. We could then turn the tapes over to the police and/or
ABC/ESPN and let them shame Maryland internationally. Apparently that's
the level of people we're dealing with, and we can either just all quit going -
one poster said "Duke fans don't even travel," but what's the point
when what you find on the other end is bottles and batteries thrown at
you? - or we can fight back in an intelligent and responsible way. We
strongly urge any Duke fan attending a game at Maryland in the future to take a
camcorder.
In reading some of the internet posts following the game, we were struck with
how bizarre many of the responses were, and the theory among some Maryland fans
that there is a conspiracy afoot involving (we think), Duke, UNC, the Big 4 as
some sort of actual entity, John Swofford, and all the referees.
This is stupidity incarnate on its face, but to just point out a few logical
inconsistencies:
1) that's a lot of people to keep in a conspiracy. The chances alone
that the referees would co-operate en masse are tiny. In case you hadn't
noticed, they're a cranky bunch on a good day.
2) if you think the refs in this conference are fond of Krzyzewski, you
should sit courtside sometime and listen to what he has to say to them. Clearly
he's not angling for favors.
3) Swofford is not going to screw the rest of the conference to advance Duke
and UNC. It screws up the bottom line, and the ACC has a very nice bottom
line, and it's cut 9 ways equally. If anything, it would make more sense to screw
the dominant teams and have the less powerful teams win more. It would get
more teams in the tourney and more money for the conference, which again would
benefit all the schools.
4) If the Big 4 is out to screw everyone else, why aren't Wake and State
screaming that they're getting screwed? They're sure as hell not getting their money's worth.
This is the kind of idiocy which has some fans advocating jumping to the Big
East, which would first of all cut the pie even further in that conference and
secondly reduce football to a total afterthought. Cutting their revenue is a
dumb idea.
Simple truth: if either Maryland hadn't fouled at the end and given Duke free
throws, or had Drew Nicholas hit all his free throws, Duke would have gotten a
pat on the head for a courageous comeback and Maryland would be basking in the
glow.
Now. Tell us how John Swofford made him miss free throws. We're all ears.