A Minor Duke Rip

Here's a little slam on Duke by a columnist for the Wisconsin student paper, who was upset that ESPN suggested Duke was a candidate for a #1 seed (they probably aren't), and doesn't like Duke's road record.

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You can debate any number of things, but he's obviously and undeniably wrong when he says that "Duke has shown a complete inability to win outside of Cameron Indoor stadium [sic]."

Not if they're 5-5, pal!

Leaving the #1 seed business alone for a minute, let's look at that, because, as the author says, context is everything.

Kansas and Arizona have both been Top 5 teams all season and Duke played them away from Cameron, losing to Kansas by 11 and Arizona by six.

The Notre Dame and Clemson losses came shortly after Coach K lost his brother. You wouldn't expect the NCAA to have that context, but the rest of can. It's a reasonable caveat.

Syracuse was a remarkable game against a team that (ahem) didn't leave the state of New York other than a pleasurable trip to Hawaii until January 7th.

UNC was the nature of the rivalry and Wake Forest was just inexplicable.

He's right about Wisconsin being really good this year. But if context is everything, it's worth mentioning this, too: Bo Ryan has only taken Wisconsin past the Sweet Sixteen just once, and that time to the Elite Eight.

Wisconsin, as a matter of fact, has been booted in the second round six of Ryan's 12 years as coach (and one in the first).

That's context too.