Dick Vitale Already Riding the Duke Bandwagon. Hard. Embarrassingly Hard.
College Basketball, ESPN August 6th. 2009, 5:45pm
Love Dick Vitale’s infectious enthusiasm. But this over-the-top Duke love must cease! STAT! Vitale’s preseason Top 40 came out yesterday, and normally we wouldn’t get too worked up about college basketball in August, seeing as how Midnight Madness is two months away and the season doesn’t start until November … but HE’S GOT DUKE 5TH!
5. Duke: Gerald Henderson is gone, but Coach K has the dynamic duo of Kyle Singler and Jon Scheyer back. The Blue Devils will also miss Elliot Williams, who transferred to Memphis.
Singler we understand. He could be a 1st team All-American. We won’t go down the Jon Scheyer road because it’s late on a Thursday and we’re gassed. (Scheyer fans: Enjoy this. ‘Twas impressive.) But this is, to put it mildly, an abomination. Yes, Duke’s still a Top 25 team. Yes, it will win 20 games and make the NCAA tournament. But fifth is an outright joke.
The worst part? Dookie V has the Blue Devils ahead of North Carolina (our summer No. 2). Has Vitale not done his homework? UNC has a top five recruiting class (Duke’s not in anyone’s top 10), returns stud-in-waiting Ed Davis, two other guys who are 6-10 or taller (Thompson, Zeller) and have experience. Toss in Marcus Ginyard as a lockdown defender, and you’re looking at a stingy team. Offensively they could have some perimeter questions, but that’s not nearly enough to vault Duke - which has just three guards on the roster! - over UNC (or Purdue, or Villanova, or West Virginia).
Sorry ’bout that. Just needed to vent.
Dick Vitale: Preseason Top 40 (ESPN)
38 Responses to “Dick Vitale Already Riding the Duke Bandwagon. Hard. Embarrassingly Hard.”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
August 6th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
This really shouldn’t surprise you anymore
August 6th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
that was impressive. too bad the refs had money on the other team…
August 6th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Except for ESPN’s and Scout’s, yeah you’re right they aren’t in anyone’s top ten. And that’s without the possibility of Dawkins.
August 6th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
I wish you felt the same about the NBA.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
its way to god damn early to discuss college basketball. 9 more days until texans@chiefs. put me into a coma until september 13th
August 6th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Scout has Duke at nine.
ESPN has Duke at nine, and has had them as high as seven.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
First, UNC doesn’t have a point guard. You’re the only person to ever have them as high at #2.
Second, UNC and Duke have no business in the top 5. Top 10, sure, but neither is top 5 to start out the season.
Third, right now, most of the ACC scribes have Duke ahead of UNC in their ACC predictions, but the ACC is wide open.
You’re really overrating their recruiting class…Strickland isn’t ready to start at pg, and the Weir twins and McDonald will have no impact on this year’s teams whatsoever. So basically, UNC’s got a logjam up front with Henson, Davis, Zeller and Thompson, and no one to get them the ball. Drew Two isn’t the answer.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Saw this yesterday and literally chuckled out loud.
Let’s see:
Lost their best, or at least most athletic, player
Have no point guard
Have little size in the middle
Have an OK, but not great recruiting class
Have a coach seemingly more interested in his moonlighting job (Team USA) than his regular job
Vitale jumped the shark about 10 years ago. He’s now approaching Beano levels.
/Not a compliment
August 6th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
The lesson, as always, is fuck Duke, go Terps.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Eh they have four guys at six ten or taller, but they need to invest in a goddamn weight room.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
FSU is too high on that list. GT will be better than them. Lawal, Favors, and Shumpert will be nasty.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Duke should definitely be rated higher than UNC. Elliot Williams is not a huge loss by any means.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Oh and a top ten recruiting class with two prospects is out fucking standing.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Thats without Dawk. 3 five stars would put them top 3…
August 6th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Duke’s going to the Final Four
The Cowboys are going to the Super Bowl
The Yankees are going to the World Series
Notre Dame will be in the BCS
USC will win the national championship
/a year in the life of ESPN. It shouldn’t surprise anyone anymore
August 6th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Not that any of this matters, nobody from the ACC is getting past KU or UK this year.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Beano is great. I take it after Cajun and Thai food. Wait, did I miss the point?
/MLB Network already on
August 6th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Mole, I passed Kelly today on campus…he’s a fucking beanstalk, and there’s no fucking way he’s 6′9″
August 6th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Tallguy has anything else happened with Dawkins?
I’m kind of looking forward to moving back to NC next week, it has been nice getting away from the non-stop retardation that is the Duke/UNC rivalry, but I have started to miss the media coverage. Nobody cares about college basketball at Penn State, they just care about Notre Dame, Pennsylvania Edition, and that’s it.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
You’re saying he’s taller right? He’s listed at six ten most places I think.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
As a KU fan, it sends chills down my spine that he is riding us. Not because I believe in bad luck or curses or anything like that… it is the possibility he’ll be replacing the immortal Ron Franklin and Fran as the ESPN announcer for KU games.
/Nah, he wouldn’t dare miss a Duke game.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
He’s a solid 6′7″ at best…which means Duke will list him at 6′10″.
From what I’ve heard, Dawkins is basically a done deal.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
Interesting. Whatever, as Zoubek proved, just being tall doesn’t mean dick.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
KC, please please please take him out of Cameron…my favorite game to watch last year was when ESPN swapped Vitale’s crew with the Van Gundy et al. I admire Dick for still having as much enthusiasm for the game as he did 30 years ago…but fucking shut the hell up you old man.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
TBL, can you ban the phrase “Jumped the Shark” from this site? How popular has that phrase become recently. Like the one announcer for ESPN college football (used to be ESPN NFL Sunday night guy, Mike something) who always says, “Are…you… kidding me”
August 6th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
i dont think i’ve written ‘jump the shark’ in a year or three
August 6th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Tallguy - Nope. He is yours. I agree with you about admiring him for the enthusiasm, but it is just too much. How do you think Duke is going to do this year?
August 6th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Has “Jump the Shark” jumped the shark?
/I’ll see myself out
//peace
///Mole, word on the street is both Plumlees are kicking ass and taking names, especially MP2.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
I think he was referring to in the comments TBL, not to your post.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
@ mole, correct. Thanks for the back up.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
theyre going to do their annual beatdown of the acc, so they will get a top 3 seed in the tourney. if they play up to their seed, they will make the elite 8. and dickie v will be justified. remember when he called lawrence funderburke a motherfucker on the air?
August 6th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Just imagine how good Duke would be if Jon Scheyer was an ACC-caliber player. Too bad he didn’t just go play at a mid-major, where he belongs.
August 6th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Oh, and UNC at #2? Comedy gold.
August 6th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
i got no problem with bashing of unc at 2 … but all you have to do is reveal your top 10
August 6th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
It’s really fascinating to see who Villanova has lost/brought in, Duke has lost/brought in, what Villanova did to Duke in the tourny last year (rhymes with crass grape) and where Dick ranks them both at.
But whatever, anything he wants to write in his column is fine and great.
I just wish if the NCAA was going to spend its precious time worrying about what kind of violations they assess to the schools of holed up college kids who make recruit fan pages on facebook, that maybe they apply the same principles towards Dick and the way he makes his broadcasts a 120 minute recruiting pitch for Duke (whether it’s a game that actually involved Duke or not).
August 6th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
why couldn’t he have had the stroke instead of corso??
August 6th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
The point of using “Jumped the Shark” was that Vitale did it A LONG TIME AGO, like when the phrase was relevant…
/thought smart assed commentary didn’t need to be explained on here
//really disappointed… not
August 7th, 2009 at 8:07 am
Duke is going to miss Henderson badly this year. He bailed them out a lot last year. He was basically the only guy on the team who could step up and create his own shot in pressure situations. I don’t know where or if it comes from anyone this year.
Oh and once again Vitale should not be allowed to do Duke games or comment on them. He is so biased it is laughable.