Cheers and Tears: Blue Devils Destroyed in Anaheim

There are certain teams in American sports that people love to hate. The New York Yankees of baseball, Notre Dame college football and Duke basketball are the three that just about any sports fan will testify they have a great amount of hate for. Why is this? Because they win and they win often. They are painted as the evil villain in sports and people say those teams have an arrogance, cockiness and that special recipe of something that makes you hate them. Hate is a strong word but it is the proper word for the Duke Blue Devils mens basketball team. On Thursday night in Anaheim the Arizona Wildcats dominated Duke for the last 20 minutes and whupped the Blue Devils 93-77. In the most impressive half of the tournament, the 'Cats put up 55 points in the second half and seemingly grabbed every rebound. It was almost sad to see at the end as Duke seniors Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler walked off the floor for the final time with a little more than 30 seconds remaining. Cameras showed Smith crying into a towel, knowing his career as a Dookie was over but instead of condolences or congratulations, the nation delighted in watching the Blue Devils lose.

Truth is, going into the game the general public opinion was that Duke would win the game and move on to the Elite 8 to face Kemba Walker and the Connecticut Huskies. The Blue Devils had all the talent for a repeat, something that if accomplished would make Mike Krzyzewski only the second coach (along with John Wooden) to win back-to-back titles twice with the same team. A win Thursday night would also give Coach K 901 wins and set up a chance for him to tie Bobby Knight's record in the Elite 8. All signs at halftime pointed to the Blue Devils winning. Going into the locker room down six, 'Zona came out and went on a 19-2 run in which sophomore stud, Derrick Williams, only scored two points. Now in control, the Cats never looked back, turning up the pressure and outrebounding the Blue Devils. Smith committed six turnovers while only scoring eight points. Williams looked like a number one draft pick, leading Arizona with 32 points and 13 rebounds. Kyrie Irving dropped 28 points and now Duke fans can only hope he returns to campus for at least another year.

Immediately following the game social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook were clogged with tweets/statuses celebrating and even thanking God that Arizona had won the game. That raised the question, "Why is Duke hated so much by so many people?" That's not that hard to answer. People hate a winner. Nobody likes a team that constantly wins and the Blue Devils have been one of the winningest teams since the 90s. People also don't like a team with players that are labeled as punks and Duke has had it's fair share recently. Former point guard Greg Paulus, Singler and Ryan Kelly are all players who have been known to throw an elbow or two but get away with it. Duke has an image and it's one that most of America doesn't like. This has never been clearer after the debut of ESPN's "Fab 5" documentary in which the players from Michigan discussed why they had so much hate for Duke. Jalen Rose said that Duke only recruits certain types of players and it's not kids from underpriveliged families who have maybe gotten in trouble or had a rough life. It's a stereotype but one that seems to be very true.

In Durham, North Carolina there is an extreme love for Duke but outside of that more people dislike them and those who hate Duke can't stand to see Duke fans in every state who have no connection with the university at all and have no reason to like them other than that they are successful. That may be why, before the final buzzer sounded, people all over the nation were celebrating Duke's defeat. And really, that's what they were celebrating--Duke's defeat. Most people could have cared less that Arizona won, but the fact the Blue Devils lost brought many great pleasure. Things won't change anytime soon for Duke because they have that image and just that special something that makes people want to see them fail. However, that may not be a bad thing. To Duke it seems they are just fine with being a winner that is hated, rather than a loser who is loved. One thing is for sure though, Arizona suddenly got thousands of more fans on Thursday night.

Photo courtesy of espn.com (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)