from the mailbag...several other people made the same points
Hello Guys!
Thanks for the heads up on Captain Idiot who wrote that nasty anti-Duke article. I would like to add, in regard to said article, that it may be more unprofessional and nasty than you guys allude to. Three quick points...
No ONE foul ever decides a game. Anyone writing about college basketball should have the experience to realized this. I think every DBR reader should go check the championship video from CBS out anf use this bit for debating info. Check out the tape of Jason's third (possibly second) foul. Stop the tape. Use slo-mo. Whatever. Jason was called for a charge when he very clearly had his head and shoulders past the Arizona defender. Not only that, but the guys was still moving anyway! Its not even almost-kinda-maybe-thinking-about being a foul!
But, of course, Duke is Duke and so they don't cry about things like that. It happens. They deal with it and move on.
Secondly...the Bob Knight reference in the article. I wrote to you guys about this when you were posting a lot of Bob Knight stuff during the last nasty bits of the Indiana thing. Every time Coach K sneezes too hard from now on (especially since he and Coach Knight are pals again), someone is going to pipe up, just like Captain Idiot, with the "just like Bobby!" refrain. Coach K is, as are all high-profile coaches these days, one disgruntled player away from "Murray Sperberfication."
And lastly, and most omniously, the writer basically calls Duke fans racist. I was extremely angry about it and I think you guys should head up some kind of campaign to get the attention of his employers. Confused? Check this bit out:
"Duke has and will always appeal to a certain demographic of basketball fans. These are the people that loved Christian Laettner, that loved Bobby Hurley, that loved Steve Wojciechowski and that probably love Mike Dunleavy today."
(My italics and bold print)
Is it not fairly clear what he is saying when he says "a certain demographic"? Duke fans don't love Johnny Dawkins or Elton Brand or Alaa Abdelnaby or Tommy Amaker or Grant Hill or David Henderson or Jason or Dahntay or Carlos? Why were all the names he listed white players? What he was implying was quite clear I think.
Anyway, just a few insights. Thanks for the site as always!
-Matt House