Duke Coaching

[Devilsforlife]

The 2010 run was just the best. I think it’ll always be my favorite.

It's the entire context that makes that title special:

1) Beloved upperclassmen
2) Long title drought by Duke's standards
3) Only one Final Four in that drought with none of the other teams even making an Elite Eight
4) Multiple high profile recruiting whiffs, including losing Harrison Barnes to UNC right after they'd won their second title in four years
5) Losing the most talented players from the previous year's team to the NBA (Gerald) or transfer (E Will)
6) The previous tournament struggles of the group that stayed at Duke
7) The feeling among the fanbase that our talent was good enough to win 25-30 games but was a long way from being able to compete with the best teams athletically
8) Being able to win just a year after UNC did, and doing it in the same year they had one of their most disappointing seasons ever

It did so much to establish Duke as still being the elite of the elite. It restored some competitive balance with a UNC program that had dominated us between 2007 and 2009. The 2015 title was also cool and unexpected. And it had its own narratives, but nothing quite as compelling as the combination of factors in 2010. It would have been on par with Scheyer winning it this year or something.

Duke led UConn by 8 with ~3 minutes left in the 2004 Final Four with a sacrificial lamb waiting in the title game. We watched #4 slip through our fingers, and then had to deal with UNC winning two titles in five years and completely owning us from JJ’s senior night on.

As disappointing as losing 3/4 in the Elite 8 and going down to UNC in the FF in 2022 was, it doesn’t come close to that era, even though our title drought will stretch to a decade minimum.

 

[TS9]

It’s a super petty and stupid thing to remember, but 2010 was also the year that Pat Forde wrote an ESPN column before the tournament singling out Duke as the one team that “absolutely could not win the title” or something to that effect. That guy sucked, so I took great pleasure in his crow-eating.

 

[TS9]

The 2010 run was just the best. I think it’ll always be my favorite.

It's the entire context that makes that title special:

1) Beloved upperclassmen
2) Long title drought by Duke's standards
3) Only one Final Four in that drought with none of the other teams even making an Elite Eight
4) Multiple high profile recruiting whiffs, including losing Harrison Barnes to UNC right after they'd won their second title in four years
5) Losing the most talented players from the previous year's team to the NBA (Gerald) or transfer (E Will)
6) The previous tournament struggles of the group that stayed at Duke
7) The feeling among the fanbase that our talent was good enough to win 25-30 games but was a long way from being able to compete with the best teams athletically
8) Being able to win just a year after UNC did, and doing it in the same year they had one of their most disappointing seasons ever

It did so much to establish Duke as still being the elite of the elite. It restored some competitive balance with a UNC program that had dominated us between 2007 and 2009. The 2015 title was also cool and unexpected. And it had its own narratives, but nothing quite as compelling as the combination of factors in 2010. It would have been on par with Scheyer winning it this year or something.

Duke led UConn by 8 with ~3 minutes left in the 2004 Final Four with a sacrificial lamb waiting in the title game. We watched #4 slip through our fingers, and then had to deal with UNC winning two titles in five years and completely owning us from JJ’s senior night on.

As disappointing as losing 3/4 in the Elite 8 and going down to UNC in the FF in 2022 was, it doesn’t come close to that era, even though our title drought will stretch to a decade minimum.

98 UK, 99 UConn, 02 Indiana and 04 UConn are the lowest I’ve felt after tournament losses. Those were still the days when I sort of believed that K/Duke had some sort of magic that would protect them from situations like that. Needless to say, that belief has long since been beaten out of me.

 

[rome8180]

It’s a super petty and stupid thing to remember, but 2010 was also the year that Pat Forde wrote an ESPN column before the tournament singling out Duke as the one team that “absolutely could not win the title” or something to that effect. That guy sucked, so I took great pleasure in his crow-eating.

And Gottlieb called us "alarmingly unathletic." I don't think there was a single expert who picked us to win it all. In fact, I'm not sure that anyone even had us making it past Baylor.

I don't think any of the fanbase felt we were going to win a title either. I know I didn't start believing until after we beat Baylor. To be fair, I didn't follow Kenpom that closely back then. Kenpom had us as a dominant team all year.

 

[Devilsforlife]

After Kentucky lost to WV, and we beat Baylor, I went from not being sure if I truly believed to “we’d better fucking win this thing.”

 

[StopThePumpFakesShav]

So did I in that moment, although us and Kansas were basically co-#1s on Kenpom pre-tourney but we werent really using efficiency metrics the way we are now so it meant less. They went out in the second round thanks to Ali Farohkmanesh.

 

[rome8180]

I think we would have beaten Kentucky, but it was nice not to have to find out. Instead, we got an easy game vs. WVU. In both 2010 and 2015, we really benefitted from having an easy win in the Final Four. We weren't physically exhausted trying to turn around and play again two days later.

 

[ZackM]

It’s a super petty and stupid thing to remember, but 2010 was also the year that Pat Forde wrote an ESPN column before the tournament singling out Duke as the one team that “absolutely could not win the title” or something to that effect. That guy sucked, so I took great pleasure in his crow-eating.

Ten teams that can win the title (and one that can't).

 

[physicsfactor]

Remember when Forde changed the title of the article and took down the comments section after Duke won it all? What a bitch. At least he didn’t remove the Duke text in the article:

And the one left out:

Duke (12). Why the Blue Devils can't win it: We've seen this movie before. Duke blazes impressively out of the gates, is confronted by its limitations (size, depth or athleticism) in the latter third of the regular season, then hits the wall in March. The Devils haven't won more than two games in an NCAA tournament since 2004, despite having No. 1 seeds twice and No. 2 seeds twice as well.

This is yet another good Duke team, with yet another set of apparent flaws. The big men (the young Plumlee brothers, Lance Thomas, Brian Zoubek) are still nothing special. The leading men, Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler, are still overworked. (Scheyer hasn't played fewer than 36 minutes in a game since December, and Singler has gone the full 40 in each of Duke's last two games.)

The Minutes will believe Duke might have a chance to win it all when it sees the Blue Devils actually advance past the Sweet 16 for the first time since Chris Duhon was in uniform.

10 teams that can win it all

 

[StopThePumpFakesShav]

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

Other coaches keep taking shots at Scheyer.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

 

[Devilsforlife]

“TJ Power = BUM” got me

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

Hornets fans seem mixed on this, since they believe Redick will leave for the Duke job at the first chance.

 

[DrKlahn]

I don’t think the Hornets should worry too much about what happens when their coach is good enough to be hired away. That’s the Duke Football Syndrome

 

[bfactor]

I realize he might just have that itch to try it, but long term it's probably the same or less money, for 10x the work and a fraction of the stability that his current gig affords. But he's a smart guy and Doc seems to have bounced back and forth between coaching and broadcasting pretty smoothly.