With the Duke Blue Devils making another Final Four, the Duke haters are sure to come out in full force. The usual charges of favoritism by referees and the media as well as the ignorant accusation that Duke is an “all-white” team, this year not withstanding, will be voiced loudly by people who need someone to hate.
The Duke hatred is, for lack of a better term, stupid.
First, the charges of Duke being just a bunch of white guys is silly. In the past fifteen years or so, Duke has had a total of five productive white players: Steve Wojciechowski, Mike Dunleavy Jr., J.J. Redick, Kyle Singler and Jon Scheyer. Five players in 15 years…not exactly an overwhelming number.
Productive African-American players in that time frame: William Avery, Trajan Langdon, Chris Carrawell, Roshown McLeod, Elton Brand, Corey Maggette, Shane Battier, Carlos Boozer, Jason Williams, Dahntay Jones, Chris Duhon, DeMarcus Nelson, Sean Dockery and Nolan Smith.
So yeah, that whole stereotype about Duke just being a bunch of white guys is completely baseless.
Secondly, why hate a program that has 15 Final Four appearances, 22 regular season conference titles, three national titles, nine National Players of the Year, graduates most of its players, never shows up on the police blotter and has a coach that never disrespects anybody or whines about anything?
The Duke hate is silly and based in fantasy, not reality.
