Yup, We’ve Heard it All: Coach K Upset His No. 2 Blue Devils Are Not a Bigger Deal in Raleigh
College Basketball January 20th. 2009, 9:00am
With the exception of riding D Wade, LeBron and Kobe to Olympic Gold, Coach K has struggled a bit recently. Since choking away an 8-point lead with three minutes to go in the Final Four in 2004, the Blue Devils haven’t been back, losing in the Sweet 16 to Michigan State and LSU (JJ Redick’s final game, when he shot 3-of-18), then in the first round to VCU, and last year in the second round to West Virginia.
So with his No. 2 Blue Devils 16-1, Coach K decided to dip into the pocket of his Brooks Brothers suit and pull out the respect card:
“I don’t even think it was mentioned in the newspapers here that we were No. 2 in the polls,” he said to reporters recently … “I know it’s not that big here,” he said of Duke’s success, “but it’s pretty damn good. So when this group makes No. 2, it’s a new group, they should be celebrated for doing something good.”
Perhaps it’s because we’ve seen this movie before. In 2008, the Blue Devils opened 22-1 before stumbling in February and March; in 2007, Duke started 13-1 before the season went south; in 2006 the Blue Devils were 27-1 and everyone had them pegged for the Final Four before LSU derailed Duke. So forgive us for being leery of believing in another perimeter-oriented team that has cratered when it counts the last three years.
Coach K working The N&O (Raleigh News & Observer)
35 Responses to “Yup, We’ve Heard it All: Coach K Upset His No. 2 Blue Devils Are Not a Bigger Deal in Raleigh”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
January 20th, 2009 at 9:04 am
I almost shed a tear for Coach K. Then I remembered that he is Satan’s gerbil.
January 20th, 2009 at 9:07 am
Coach K 1,000x> Roy Williams
Laettner 1,000x> Psycho T
His team hasn’t dropped two conference games. They are overlooked.
January 20th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Obviously Sanders is talking about giving bj’s to Johnny Dawkins instead of basketball acumen.
January 20th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Duke crying out about being disrespected. What next, will the Steelers all come out and say that no one believed in them either?
January 20th, 2009 at 9:17 am
i actually had worked in that crying of Redick in that loss to LSU … but i felt bad. i actually watched the youtube clip of redick dropping 41 on texas. man redick could shoot.
January 20th, 2009 at 9:17 am
Please. Coach K and Roy Williams aren’t even comparable.
January 20th, 2009 at 9:19 am
You wanna go there huh bsanders?
Dean Smith 1,000x> Coach K
Michael Jordan 1,000x> (any duke player you want to put here)
January 20th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Redick can still shoot. Benchwarmer with lethal range
Coach K needs to pipe down. Conference play just started
January 20th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Wake will destroy Duke next Wednesday. I can’t wait to watch Singler trying to guard Johnson and/or Aminu and Paulus trying to stay in front of Teague.
January 20th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Duke has sort of surprised me this season. Wake is better though beat wake and then talk Coach K.
TBL this is for you
January 20th, 2009 at 9:25 am
Tampa – i wrote that in a post in december. post coming on it later.
as for UNC, i have always stood by this: For as much talent as Dean Smith had, 2 titles in 30 years of coaching (or however long he coached) was majorly disappointing.
the guy had all the great hamburger AAs every year and he won a whopping two titles.
January 20th, 2009 at 9:28 am
I’m not a Duke fan or Carolina hater, but the first one is totally wrong (per what TBL said) and what’s the point of even making the second one? No shit, the greatest player to ever play the game is better than any Duke player.
January 20th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Nobody can argue with the championships TBL, but as for how everybody loves that guy and worships him is the thing that stands out. I have never heard or read a bad word about the guy. This is why I admire him so much. The following that comes back to UNC to play and scrimmage, and be a part of that family is crazy.
January 20th, 2009 at 9:29 am
so Dean Smith = Tony Dungy, TBL?
January 20th, 2009 at 9:29 am
nwilson, if you wanna go there I suppose all someone has to ask is where Dean Smith went to college?
Oh and Roy is a fuckface.
January 20th, 2009 at 9:30 am
better than cherokee parks?
/did cherokee parks go to duke?
//go rape school!!!
January 20th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Kansas looked good last night.
January 20th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Roy Williams is a fraud. He has so much Talent, there is no excuse why North Carolina didn’t win the Championship last year. Now with the emergence of Wake and Duke they might not get favorable seeding. But its N.C. so someone will get fucked for them.
January 20th, 2009 at 9:33 am
nope, miz. totally different sport.
everyone is fighting to get to UNC. all the best high school players are hard-up to go there because of TV, jordan’s history, etc.
i dont think you can make the comparison to the NFL, since there’s a salary cap and unlike college, the draft starts with the worst.
January 20th, 2009 at 9:33 am
nwilson- Kansas sucks this year. They’re just going to get helped by a weak Big 12.
FWIW- Duke is the #1 team in the Pomeroy ratings, but they’re not going to win a title with the 12th ranked offense.
January 20th, 2009 at 9:34 am
Considering Dungy only had the best team one year during his coaching career (and that was the year his son decided to kill himself) and he won one championship, I still don’t see how people consider him this massive underachiever.
January 20th, 2009 at 9:37 am
(and that was the year his son decided to kill himself)
I was so pissed when that shit happened.
January 20th, 2009 at 9:39 am
+1 miz
I got it. TBL didn’t
January 20th, 2009 at 9:48 am
i always considered the colts and the chargers to have the most talented teams in the NFL since 2003 or so (except for last year and the Pats)…they had the best QB in the NFL…he did shit…he underachieved massively considering how consistently good his teams were.
didn’t we have this argument last week?
January 20th, 2009 at 9:51 am
“most talented” – wait, i thought that was outlawed when the Cowboys and Chargers had that label throughout this season?
calling Roy a fraud seems strong … although he has had plenty of letdowns. i love rubbing the 1996 syracuse win over KU in the elite 8 in everyone’s face. what an upset that was. then KU lost in 97 to arizona with maybe roy’s best team (paul pierce among others), and last year with UNC and there were a couple other choke jobs in there
January 20th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Nobody can argue with the championships TBL, but as for how everybody loves that guy and worships him is the thing that stands out. I have never heard or read a bad word about the guy. This is why I admire him so much. The following that comes back to UNC to play and scrimmage, and be a part of that family is crazy.
Maybe I’m the one who’s wrong, but I +1′d Miz because I thought he was comparing this slurping of Dean to “Saint Tony”, not their coaching records.
Turn on any TV station right now not called ESPN and you’ll see what I mean
January 20th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Yep, you’re entitled to your opinion, but I think it’s wrong. The Pats always had superior defenses and special teams to the Colts, had homefield advantage and – in general – were better in 2003 and 2004. In 2005, the Colts had the best team but came out completely out of sorts against the Steelers and finally came around too late to win. In 2006, they probably had the third best team, but won the title. In 2007, they had the second-best team, but had zero pass rush in their playoff game without Freeney/Mathis. A Cover 2 with no pass rush = free money.
This year, with all the injuries, unexpected departures and a few poor offseason decisions (resigning Lilja instead of Scott) they were more or less a 9-7 team who pulled a few wins out of their ass. So, in short, he didn’t “massively underachieve.”
January 20th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Dont forget about the KU loss in 02. Maryland was loaded but Gary Williams is a fraud as well.
January 20th, 2009 at 10:00 am
bsanders…the only reason im hard on dungy is because i really like the colts (well…peyton) and that dungy hasn’t done enough to prepare his teams for the playoffs and always left me disappointed. it’s just a selfish reaction by me, and nothing else.
“massively underachieving” might be an overreaction, but he should’ve gotten another ring somewhere along the road.
January 20th, 2009 at 10:04 am
Where does Lute Olson fall in with the “massively underachieving†coaches he only has one title as well.
January 20th, 2009 at 10:08 am
I hear ya. Believe me, I think they could have and maybe should have gotten another ring as well. There was no reason that 2005 team shouldn’t have won the Super Bowl. Other than the 2007 Pats, I think the were the best team of the 2000’s. They won their first 13 games of that season by at least a touchdown. But the Dungy kid’s suicide had them completely out of whack and they gave Pittsburgh a 14-point head start before they snapped out of it.
In 2003 and 2004 they just played a Pats team on the road who was better. They should have won both regular season games those years (a goal line stuff and missed Vangerjagt FG), and had they they would’ve hosted both those playoff games. Might’ve been a different story then. The 2007 team just had too many injuries along the defensive line during the playoffs. They actually were about to go up 14-0 on the Chargers, then had a turnover on the goalline that completely swung the game. Same thing happened in this year’s game.
So I don’t really think they were unprepared. Jamal Williams just completely shuts down their running game, which is why the Chargers are a bad matchup for them.
January 20th, 2009 at 10:25 am
Oh Big lead, a little late to this game.
The quote was two weeks ago, and to probably prove his point, it took ten days for newspaper to respond. Having said that, Coach K is right. He was referring to local press, not national. The local press has always fawned over the Tar Heels.
January 20th, 2009 at 11:27 am
The Duke University campus has actually been officially annexed to New Jersey – that is why the local press doesn’t cover Duke
January 20th, 2009 at 11:32 am
KU in 2002 and 2003 made me want to jump off a building. It took us getting a real coach in there to win a title.
January 20th, 2009 at 11:59 am
TBL et al: this was old 2 weeks ago, and K has a right to be pissed. Duke lost their N&O beat writer, and now shares NCSU’s beat writer who obviously will be devoting more attention on State because of proximity and familiarity. UNC still has their beat writer, and 60% of college basketball coverage in the paper is focused on UNC. Now, I’m not going to fault the N&O, they’re hurting and UNC sells papers. I will, however, fault the Herald Sun for being a piss poor rag that has a sports editor and a publisher that are unabashed Duke haters…then piss and moan when Duke stops buying their paper for the students, substituting the N&O.
Basically, this was just a shot at the local media, has nothing to do with the national media, and as already stated, was old news last week.
But hey, how about that Georgetown game, right?