Right now is undoubtedly a great time for UK fans, but I can't help fight the need to find something to rebel against. The source of my disdain today is the same as it is most any day... Duke.
I still haven't completely gotten over an inferior Duke team cutting down the nets this year. We would have destroyed that team if not for a horrendous shooting effort, but it is what it is. They won. I can get past that. I have lived through four Duke championships, and life goes on. What also goes on is my hatred for Duke.
This isn't just another random post detailing my hatred for Duke, although I really don't require any reason to bang out a post on just hating them. One of the big things that bother UK fans (and pretty much every other college basketball fan) is how Coach K and Duke are held up by many on a pedestal as a shining beacon of college athletics. I can handle Duke winning games, and I can even handle their obnoxious stable of the most hate-able players in NCAA history (looking at you Wojo). What I cannot stand for is the perception of Duke being the White Knight of college basketball.
Look, I get why people hate on UK and Calipari. I know what I thought of Calipari before he got here, and I can see how his approach would rub many the wrong way. I love the guy now that he is in Lexington, but this isn't a post defending our coach or program. My whole thing is, Duke isn't any better, yet they are lauded by many pundits for doing things the "right" way.
I know, by now you are probably wondering just exactly what I am talking about. To the experienced Duke hater's out there, there's probably a number of examples that have crossed your mind. There was the Corey Maggette situation that is out there as an example of the double standard NCAA treats their poster boy Coach K. There are two of the least likable people on Earth, Bobby Knight and Billy Packer, continuously showing Coach K love, Christian Laettner. Yea, there is a lot there to hate.
To me, it is just lazy journalism to single out Calipari as the face of what is wrong with college sports, while giving Coach K a free pass. What is the source of my frustration today is Coach K's involvement with Team USA basketball. The Under 18 squad that represented the United States wreaked of Blue Devils. For the record, I had serious qualms about rooting for Team USA because of Coach K's affiliation with the Redeem Team.
First, there is former Duke player and assistant Jeff Capel being named the head coach for the team, despite his Oklahoma squad being under investigation for rules infractions. He is an up and coming coach, but let's not kid ourselves. He got the job because of Coach K.
Then there were the players on the squad. Kyrie Irving and Josh Hairston are both headed to Duke as incoming Freshman. Irving is a top notch player, but Hairston's addition to the team is right in line with countless Dukies getting rubber stamped as McDonald All Americans each spring. Rivals ranks Hairston #56 in the incoming class, yet he beats out future lottery picks like Kentucky's very own Terrence Jones? Here is the list of players that were invited to the tryouts, Seems fishy to me.
In addition to Hairston and Irving, Duke's two biggest targets for the 2011 class were also on the team, Austin Rivers and Quincy Miller. These two deserve to be on the team no doubt, but the whole thing is advantageous for Duke and Coach K. They have several Dukies recruiting these underclassmen, and also two incoming freshman getting some great exposure playing high level international competition.
Look, I don't blame Coach K for doing what he is doing. Anything within the rules should be exploited to help out your program. Cal lives by the same mantra, but Coach K isn't labeled as the same cut throat coach that lives in the gray area. K is no different than any other coach, other than the kid gloves many in the media and NCAA offices treat him with.
If Coach Calipari used TEAM USA basketball as a conduit for Kentucky basketball, you can believe Forde or some other hack would site it as another example of Cal being Cal. Anything to sign the next big thing. Coach K does the same thing? Not a word.
By the way, Team USA won the tournament. Wasn't as hard to root for the Red, White and Blue as it was in China a couple summer's ago, but it still feels wrong rooting for anything associated with Duke basketball.
Its gross how wrong you are about Hairston. Kid is a top 20 prospect as a face-up 4 man. He embraced the "dirty work" role that you pride your own commit Gilchrist on and put in a lot of work on the block to open things up for Rivers, Irving, Miller, etc.
ReplyDeleteTerrence Jones was invited but did not participate. Duke commit ('11) Mike Gbinije, a 5-star SG prospect, was cut from the tryout field of 19, which again, Jones was not a part of.
Gomez here...
ReplyDeleteWell said, Austin. I agree with ya.
Learn to fact check, buddy.
ReplyDeleteJerry Colangelo is the head of USA basketball, not Coach K. If you are confident of Terrence Jones being a better or more deserving player than Josh Hairston, wait until the season starts and he proves himself to talk trash. Clearly talking trash has worked for Daniel Orton (do UK fans even like him now?) who was just tossed from his first summer league game for fighting with—wow—former Blue Devil Josh McRoberts. Is that a Coach K conspiracy too? Maybe he's connected to the inner circles of NBA refereeing...
And as if Calipari isn't using every 'conduit' to lure recruits to his schools. You can start impugning other coaches when Calipari gets to a Final Four legitimately. You can't escape the stupidity of your ideas here by saying, "this isn't a post defending our coach or program." As soon as you start criticizing a proven winner like K, the feeble defense of Calipari looks even more pathetic.
Coach K & Duke are not perfect, but they are far closer to it than UK will ever be while Cal is the coach.
Kevin are you really defending the fact that Hairston made the team? Doesn't matter to me if the UK kids made it or not, but there were a ton of kids who deserved to go over Hairston. There is also a ZERO percent chance he gets invited if anyone other than K was coach. Go troll somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteSame goes for you Jake the Snake.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen any of them play... at all... there are ppl far more wise than myself who do that for a living, and I feel that, with basketball especially, it's not that difficult to evaluate talent.
ReplyDeleteAll the while, it is strange that players who aren't even the most highly sought after recruits in their own signing class make it.
Now, that isn't to say that they didn't bring some serious wood to the games they participated, and didn't earn the slot... and yes, if Cal was the coach, and a player that was a target of or current commitment to UK got the nod over another deserving player, that would be equally as suspicious... but in today's climate of college basketball recruiting, you have to take every advantage you can get.
Cal may be the master of that... but perhaps K found a way even he can't reach...
Oh, and just for the record... even if there was no UK-Duke rivalry, I'd still hate K just because he's Knight's kissing cousin.
My whole point was that if Calipari were TEAM USA Coach, someone on ESPN would be connecting all the dots between his program and USA basketball.
ReplyDeleteI am well aware that Colangelo is in charge, but if you don't think K is involved in the process you are crazy.
And I don't even rip K for taking advantage of this post, only that it is an example of the contradictory way the media treats him and Coach Calipari.
K is no different than any other coach, except for how he is treated. (Officiating, NCAA tournament seeding and geographic placement, media, commercial opportunities, etc.)
As for fact checking, I very well might be off on T Jones. I may not have done the homework there. That part in particular I know I couldn't find much info on. I knew there were probably a few holes like you pointed out, and thanks for that.
If you really don't think Hairston making the team is in akin to various Dookies making the McD AA game over the years I really don't know what to tell you. Just want some of what you are having.