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Duke Basketball 2023-2024

What fate awaits this Duke team?

  • Total voters
    29
  • Poll closed .
I want to do a parody of "What It's Like" by Everlast where the lyrics are "Then you really might know what it's like to get fact-checked."
 
Holy fuck is this really our operating budget? It's impossible to say Duke isn't all-in on basketball with this number.

 
^^^ I'm declaring an interdiction on this low-rent, sad sack, superstitious, mopey shit, no offense, this isn't directed to you or anyone in particular.

It's been mostly fun but I think sometime in the last two years it's passed from tongue-in-cheek frivolity to actually unhealthy, repulsive, and somewhat pathetic. I love most of the posters themselves but when we're swapping tales about squinting/obscuring the score for the other team on our phones just to be able to track it ffs -- because nobody watching the games live is taken for granted -- or just whining endlessly and reflexively about how Duke is going to lose, or the indulgence in suffering fantasies, relitigating the past, or attempting to scry vis-a-vis results in other sports and non-sports domains every single day and other superstitious recitations of rules/laws, it's grating no matter how much meta-irony it's supposed to be underpinned with. I've been on this board in all iterations for thirteen years, and been guilty of some of this behavior on more than one occasion, but there's a limit on tolerable cynicism and I think that's now been passed. I believe there's a balance to be struck between say, DBR, and what has become of this board, that would be a much healthier way to consume Duke Basketball for all involved, in my opinion. Duke Twitter is actually worse about this with regards to Scheyer but I think much closer to the mark in their attitude towards Duke basketball fandom long-term and game to game. Like just a little more joy would go a long way, to put it (probably too) simply. I want to revel, boast and take collective pleasure in kicking other teams’ asses or relishing the idea of doing so to our next opponent no matter the chances. I wish I could articulate this better because I don’t want it associated with the genre of simple minded fan who doesn’t countenance any criticism whatsoever that we’ve all rightly ridiculed over the years, and I do unironically still think this is by far the smartest and most realistic collection of Duke fans anywhere

Didn't want to write a tome about this, just something that's bubbled over in my mind as I stepped back the last two weeks, not a call to fight anyone, I'm still trying to improve this mindset in myself.
 
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This is my safe space to act like a child. No chance I'm engaging with the cesspool that is twitter.
 
I think you'll see the tone of this place change significantly if UNC were to lose a game from here on out, which is why I don't necessarily view this as an undeniable downward trend. Although I don't personally care too much about college basketball relative to the past, I would guess the past three seasons in a vacuum have been among the absolute worst periods to be a Duke fan since K started, almost entirely due to what UNC has been doing during this period.

There have been more dominant periods for UNC and much worse periods for Duke's performance, but I'm not sure there has been a luckier and more irritating period enjoyed by UNC, even including their tremendous failure last season. 8-seed #16 Kenpom team, ending Duke and K in the Final Four, behind a top 1% individual 3pt overperformance in history, with much, much, much worse talent than Duke, only salvaged by properly losing to an elite opponent in the title game.

Now #9 Kenpom, objectively undeserving of a 1-seed, in a season when getting the 4th 1-seed to avoid the top 3 teams was more important than ever, with every other contender for that final 1-seed losing exactly the games UNC needed them to lose, and an old guy transfer who is far outperforming his lifetime track record. These are two once-in-a-lifetime potential sunruns happening one season apart.

I fully expect this place to become the saltiest place on earth in the moments after Harrison Ingram hits a dagger 25-footer to beat UConn, regardless of how Duke has performed and whether Duke is still alive. There isn't much to be done about that. It will get better if UNC next season does not go 3 out of the past 4 in having once-in-a-lifetime luck.
 
Yes I didn’t mention the UNC factor but undoubtably you’re correct about that as a major distortion factor (even when in isolation this season I don’t see them as affecting our destiny that much) And I say that as someone still living locally

Mostly for that reason I do hope we end up in separate conferences sooner than later as the ACC falls apart and the rivalry just sort of becomes irrelevant. I’d be happy to never play them again. It’s not on the balance helped Duke basketball to be associated with it in many years anyways
 
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It’s weird, I’ve actually found myself being less negative, on balance, over the past two seasons. Despite some disappointments, the Scheyer era has been refreshing overall for me. There was a draining element to late stage K, despite the results still being very good most years. The repetitive defensive failures, especially.

The UNC factor has been very annoying and I fucking hate whoever it was that decided the “covid year” was necessary.
 
I don't feel that negative about the team or the state of the program. The reason I don't watch games is for my own physical health. The level of stress and anxiety is not worth the reward. And it seems to increase every single year for me. I mean it when I say I wish I could excise basketball from my life altogether. But that doesn't mean I'm all doom and gloom about the program going forward.

Disclaimer: I didn't read any of those super long posts.
 
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