A Tale Of Two Perspectives

There are obviously different ways to look at Duke's win over Notre Dame, as there are different ways to look at anything. If you want to get two pretty polar opposites though, try this article by SI's Martin Rickman and one by Ed Hardin of the Greensboro paper.

We're honestly not sure how to take Hardin sometimes.

After the Georgia Tech game, he came up with this column, including this quote: "As the Blue Devils staggered to their 19th win of the season, the realization set in on the late-arriving crowd that something’s not right with this team. And the realization seemed to set in on Georgia Tech, too.
Duke’s not very good."

After the Notre Dame win he modified his theme somewhat: "Nearing the end of a long season, he’d finally found the team he’d imagined before the year began, the team with all the impact freshmen making basketball fun again in Cameron, the team he dreamed of before the losses mounted and the critics began shouting, before the 1,000th win and 423rd ACC win earlier this week that put Krzyzewski past Dean Smith and before he kicked Sulaimon from the program."

Uh. Duke is 20-3 with losses to State, Miami and Notre Dame. The earlier losses are behind and the Notre Dame game could have gone either way. And Duke has wins over Top Ten teams Wisconsin, Louisville and Virginia  - on their home courts. It's hardly a disastrous season.

There are a lot of points in his column which you could read as digs or thinly veiled shots but see what you think.

Every team has weaknesses and issues, but we lean more towards Rickman's take: "The final score of 90-60 indicates an impressive win over the 10th ranked team in the nation and shows just how dangerous Duke can be when it is completely focused and operating at peak efficiency. Duke had plenty of motivation to be focused after the loss to the Irish on Jan. 28...If Duke keeps playing like this, it might be just one moment in what could ultimately become a signature season as well."