So as the college basketball season matriculates into the “win or pack the gear” stage, the Duke Blue Devils and the Hall of Fame career of coach Mike Krzyzewski are approaching the finish line.
Duke’s Atlantic Coast Conference tournament opener is a Thursday quarterfinal against Syracuse, and the Devils will stay in that draw as long as they keep winning. The Devils and Coach K will assuredly be in the NCAA tournament next week, and when the music starts for that Dance, welp, any game could be the last.
That said, I’ve got to admit I was tickled by everything about the ending for Coach K in his final home game last weekend at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
What a disaster. Duke played like crud. The crowd was pompous and painted, and then silent and sad.
Coach K’s staff showed a classless side, and one assistant refused to shake North Carolina coach Hubert Davis’ hand after the game.
(Where are all the “end the handshake line” commentaries on this one? Gang, bad sportsmanship is bad sportsmanship, whether it ends with Juwan Howard taking a swing or Duke assistant – heavy accent on that first syllable – Chris Carrawell deciding Davis did not deserve a dap after the Tar Heels waxed the Devils.)
And while we’re here, the narrative of Carrawell and the rest of the Duke staff having their Nike shorts in a bunch because the UNC fans chanted “(Bleep) Coach K” in Duke’s trip to Chapel Hill earlier this season, well, get over a bunch of that.
First, Duke prides itself on having unruly and obnoxious fans. Second, the coaching staff acting like the student body is never an acceptable response. Finally, it was so bush league that Carrawell should be disciplined, because how can you demand your student-athletes have sportsmanship when your staff making six figures coaching a game consider it optional?
And now imagine if only he had a legendary, holier-than-thou head coach on staff who through the years would have been overjoyed to step aside and step into the spotlight to admonish a player or an opponent to be “better than that.” Someone get former Oregon star Dillion Brooks on the blower, stat.
(Side note: Hey, Coach K – and Mark Few, too – we all get the halftime interview is gross and about as informative as a Joe Biden press briefing, but suck it up and spew some clichés on your way to the locker room. Because know this: If Nick Saban can take the time to offer “Yeah, we have to eliminate the turnovers” before getting to the intermission, you jackwagons can as well.)
But that’s the thing about hypocrisy, and in truth, if I was going to start rattling off adjectives about Coach K’s 42 years at Duke, well, hypocritical is not at the top of the list, but it’s in the team picture.
Elite is likely atop that list to describe Coach K’s tenure in Durham. Duke has won five NCAA titles under Coach K and has produced enough No. 1 seeds to fill the Barn Nursery.
Dirty – and hated – is on that list, too. Not necessarily dirty in recruiting per se, but gang, if you think the elite programs are not paying their players, too, then I really don’t know what to tell you. And not just hated because they have been atop the mountain for the last three-plus decades.
Rather Duke’s litany of dirty play has harkened back to Christian Laettner’s chest stomp in college basketball’s most magical March Madness moment and continued with a slew of hard-charging dudes that included arguably the most hated college basketball player not named Laettner in history, Grayson Allen.
There are other words and phrases to describe Coach K’s run as well. Pride. Defense. Culture. Cameron Crazies.
Also on that list could be lucky. Lucky that Coach K came along when he did, because if a young former Army coach came to this Duke team and made one NIT and no NCAAs in his first three seasons with social media and the price for mediocrity in today’s college sports, we’d never have learned how to spell his name.
And of course, the holier-than-thou attitude that Coach K exuded and Dickie V and the rest of K’s lackeys perpetrated.
In fact, when Coach K went off script Saturday in his postgame speech to the crowd to admonish his team and shush the doting fans, it was almost the perfect conclusion.
Unless you were a Duke devotee, that is.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and read his 5-at-10 every weekday at 10 a.m. at timesfreepress.com.