The Duke Hype Train Needs A Break

It’s been a giddy few days for Duke fans but WRAL’s Jeff Gravley is right to say: pump the brakes a bit.

The bandwagon’s axles are creaking and we’re just one game in. When you start seeing stupid stuff like this and this and usually intelligent sites like SI.com start speculating about who can possibly beat them, we have two words for you: Chuck Wepner.

Wepner was a middling boxer who got a shot at Muhammad Ali and came closer than anyone dreamed to beating the champ. He actually knocked him down in the ninth.

Ali got mad after that and tore him apart but the guy went fifteen rounds with Ali.

Every Ali has a Wepner waiting or worse, a Buster Douglas.

Douglas trained hard in 1990 while Tyson had grown complacent, distracted and spent most of his time feeding his sex addiction.

So when Douglas came at him hard and was relentless, Tyson, the 42-1 favorite, couldn’t go the distance.

We’re not saying that Duke is complacent, but overconfidence is the enemy, and the training meal is social media.

Every team Duke sees from here on out will be in Buster Douglas mode (does it strike anyone else as odd that no one seems to consider that UNC might be a team that can beat Duke? We’re pretty sure the Tar Heels think it’s doable).

Coach K knows what’s coming but his young charges won’t and may need a bloody nose to teach them this lesson.