West Virginia Topples Duke; National Morale Soars
College Basketball March 22nd. 2008, 3:45pm
Well, that was a tale of 2 halves, to be certain. After starting the game by hitting 2/3 3-pointers, Duke finished a Saturday loss to the Mountaineers making 4/20. A solid 2 for 17 effort helped erase a 5 point first half lead.Â
For West Virginia, Joe Alexander finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds and Alex Rouff had 14 in WVU’s 9 point victory. Alexander also finished the game looking kinda sorta similar to Joey Harrington (I said ‘kinda sorta’). Gerald Henderson finished with 14 and Jon Scheyer had 15 for the Dukies. No team in sports, collegiate or otherwise, elicits the passionate joy that Duke does when they lose – and for that, we thank them. Bob Huggins and West Virginia move on to the Sweet 16 and await the winner of Purdue/Xavier, set to tip off in the short future.Â
As we speak, Kansas State and Wisconsin are playing in Omaha. Michael Beasley had 8 of K-State’s first 12 points.Â
Oh, and I bet you Bob Huggins is still sweating.
42 Responses to “West Virginia Topples Duke; National Morale Soars”
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March 22nd, 2008 at 3:48 PM
the yankees, cowboys, and patriots would like a word with you
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:51 PM
I call bluff on the Yankees and Cowboys. The Patriots this year for sure, but overall, I say Duke. But that’s why you like vanilla and I like chocolate — you like crappy ice cream. (i kid, i kid).
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:54 PM
yeah the cowboys are a bit of a reach i guess but the national hatred for the yankees surpasses anything in my opinion. granted i think its a little different for pro sports because of the money involved.
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:55 PM
I think Duke takes them all, but I gotta believe the Cowboys and Yankees are close. The Patriots are a but a blip in “National History of Sports Enmity” graph.
I feel great. I had Duke losing in the Sweet 16 to Xavier, anyway. On top of that, I’ve still got a perfect Midwest (Sienna, Nova, Davidson).
Comon ’sconsin.
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:57 PM
i dont expect a poll on espn.com tonight saying ‘are you glad duke lost’ like when the patriots lost the superbowl
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:58 PM
Though the hatred is debatable, the Red Sox are definitely more annoying than the Yankees.
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:58 PM
Patrick-I answered your question on the Kapowski post.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:00 PM
Somewhere, Dickie V quietly mourns.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:01 PM
question for MoleMan or anyone else I guess.
So Coach K doesn’t allow his players to have corn rows. (I’m assuming that anyways. If there has been one let me know)
Does this make him racist?
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:03 PM
Doug-It makes him have good taste in hair.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:03 PM
This was the lock of the weekend. Duke just doesn’t have the bigs to handle the upper echelon teams.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:04 PM
can anyone verify that he actually has some sort of appearnace policy? if so thats his own prerogative. its kind of retarded if he does, but no absolutely not does that make him a racist. as soon as he stops recruiting black players ill worry about if hes racist.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:07 PM
I remember back when Clem Haskins was at Minnesota, he had a policy of no earrings and no tats. I’ll bet Coach K has the same sort of policy
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:08 PM
seriously do we have to go through this again? vitale is a fan of whichever acc team is on top at the moment. the early 2000’s he was a huge duke guy because they were on top. since 2005 he has been on the carolina wagon. hes a douchebag through and through but now hes carolina’s douchebag, not duke’s
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:08 PM
k doesnt have a no tattoo policy. and anyone who plays ball with an earing is a dick.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:10 PM
@Mole
judging by his current team it seems Coach K is on his way to a no black player policy. I bet his personal taste in hair at home is a big huge bush.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:10 PM
Don’t know the answer to the cornrows question, but that it would not surprise me if that’s not allowed. He has always tried to make Dook like West Point South. That’s why so many guys rebel as soon as they leave his clutches (Cherokee, anyone?) and why he basically kicked Greg Newton out of the rotation when he started getting all inked up.
By the way, as a Carolina grad, is it wrong that it’s 5:10 in the afternoon and I can already call Saturday a success? Forget Pittsnogle, Dook just got Mazzulla-ed!
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:10 PM
@PI — Keep in mind that Yankees fans haven’t had anything to be obnoxious about in quite a while. Once they finally win another series, they’ll be right back on top.
I still think Cowboys fans (the one’s that live nowhere near Texas) are the pinnacle of fan annoyance, though. I probably ought to issue the disclaimer that I am an Eagles fan, though.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:11 PM
Could have explained myself better, methinks. Clem had an appearance policy that said no tats or earrings. The no cornrows bit is probably another appearance policy.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:11 PM
gotcha
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:14 PM
is there really anything wrong with that? if there is a player who wont play for someone because he makes them cut their hair thats a judge of a kids character. i know i know that sounds like a racist statement but if someone is more concerned about their hair than who they play for, theyre a piece of shit.
i think the issue moreso than appearance is that he allegedly wont recruit players who he thinks wont stay around. shit mcroberts came from a wealthy family and he bailed on his ass.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:14 PM
It’s against the NCAA rules to play with earings in anyways.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:21 PM
Moleman – I say this in all objectivity, K has run his program that way for almost 30 years and his record speaks for itself, but it certainly has the appearance at least of being far more “Army-esque” if you will than most in the nation. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that at all, but that certainly can, and likely does, limit who might be interested in the program. I agree that he shies away from guys that might leave early, and that’s where the consistantcy of the program comes from. But a guy that’s there for 1-2 years might prove the difference in winning a title nowadays (Carmelo being the obvious example, but you can make an argument for Marvin Williams for us in ‘05).
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:22 PM
Going off moleman, look at Kris Humphries. He didn’t want to do course work over the summer, so K gave him his release. After one year a Minnesota, he took off.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:24 PM
i agree 100 percent. granted you never win that title without jawad williams either and that speaks towards having solid fundamental guys too but marvin was a huge part of it.
but so so much of the past two years problems go back to boateng and zoubek sucking ass something awful. heres hoping wakes recruiting class for this year is a bust
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:26 PM
The stat just said the Huggins is 22-15 in the NCAA Tournament.
Okay, take out the two wins this year and the four wins when he got to the Final Four 16 years ago, and he’s 16-15 in between. Wow, that blows. I knew his Cincinnati teams shat the bed, but I didn’t even remember it being that bad.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:28 PM
i really think cincy had a shot they year martin broke his leg in the conference tourney, but yeah that team continually fell short. shit at least duke wins one every ten years.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:30 PM
Is there any sporting event with more commercials than the NCAA Tourney? Is it me or is it worse this year? Guess it can’t be, maybe I’m just getting impatient in my more mature years.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:32 PM
what are the odds espn will run the masters commercial freeish? less than zero? when cbs did/does that its one of the best things ever
my two favorite sports to watch on tv are hockey and soccer, not shocking that one of them has roughly three commercial breaks a period, the other has one per game.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:35 PM
ESPN’s Masters won’t be commercial-free, but from what I’ve heard it’ll be the same as CBS’ coverage, 3-4 minutes per hour from the same three companies. No way Augusta gives the cable rights to the WWL if they don’t agree to that.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:36 PM
wow im actually shocked if thats true.
granted, was the opening round coverage on usa in the past under those restrictions? i cant remember
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:37 PM
Commercials–comercials, yes. Overall, no. Fortunately there are no “Built Ford Tough–Tough Guy of the Games” and “Air Jordan Jump Balls.” For the most part, I am grateful for that, even if it is gradually getting worse. It’s not Sportscenter, NFL, or NASCAR–yet.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:38 PM
Yeah, USA had the same. It’s part of Augusta National’s annual TV deal. It was actually their call, not CBS’, to go commercial-free in ‘03 after the Martha Burke crap.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:43 PM
No way Augusta gives the cable rights to the WWL if they don’t agree to that.
I just hope they don’t bring out their Jemele Hill/Scoop Jackson “Is Augusta racist and sexist?” hatchet job/hype machine to promote the event (like they were accused of doing with the Auriemma/Summitt “conflict” to promote women’s basketball).
K-State is on life support. That one will hurt me.
March 22nd, 2008 at 4:48 PM
Glad to have Huggins over Belien anyday.
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:05 PM
No way ESPN is stupid enough to do that. Augusta gives out the TV contracts to both CBS and cable on a yearly basis, so they’d yank it so fast from Bristol they wouldn’t know what hit them.
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:11 PM
Actually ESPN is in a no-win situation no matter what they do. If they did it, people would accuse them of shamelessly promoting it. But if they didn’t, others would say that they are intentionally ignoring it because they don’t want to lose the contract.
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:18 PM
Don’t forget that Dean Smith wouldn’t let any players have facial hair. The one exception being James Worthy, because he has a skin condition that makes it very painful to shave (I assume its ecsema or something like that.) Wow, talk about going out on your back. DeMarcus Nelson has been absent the past five games, not what you want from your Senior. By the way, how good do people think Andersen will be when he eventually goes pro? I think he’s an incredibly rare complete package for a guy that size, like Nowitzki with a better first-step/ups.
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:19 PM
Oops, I meant Alexander, not Andersen. Sorry about that.
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:37 PM
As for the Dean Smith facial hair rule
1. that was years ago
2. that is not a race issue like corn rows is, although I guess technically a white dude could have them but you get the point
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:38 PM
On the same topic I once read in USA Today that Pat Summit does not allow any of her players to have a bush. True Story.
March 22nd, 2008 at 6:00 PM
What I’m saying is that dress code rules are not always about race. White people sometimes (unfortunately) have corn rows–either on their Caribbean vacation or if they are Justin Timberlake. Why don’t people say a team like Purdue, with tons of white players, is racist? I’ve played hoops my whole life, and it’s never about race unless you aren’t a good player and focus on those kinds of things. The test for your argument would be if a Duke guy ever had a pony tail, and that was allowed, since rows and a tail are both long hair.