Man, just look at that guy. Doesn’t that guy just scream Duke? Every sport needs a villain, a Cobra Kai, the bad snotty guys who have everything and want more, the kids with the nice cars who only care about ascots, three-pointers, and hair gel. That’s a comically wrong version of what Duke is, but so what? Having Duke around gives us all enemies. We all need enemies.
We wrote about Duke in the Times a few years ago. To quote ourselves:
Duke has become the team that no one feels guilty about hating; you can accuse Mike Krzyzewski of eating children, and not only does no one seem to mind, no one disagrees. Last year, Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, tone-deaf as always, showed up at Cameron Indoor Stadium wearing a Duke T-shirt, and he couldn’t have hurt his reputation more with sports fans had he been sporting a half-mustache. The Web site The Truth About Duke is only the poisonous epicenter of the Duke hatred maelstrom, though it’s difficult to deny they’re the best at it. You don’t even have to be a sports fan to hate Duke.
We mention all this because this weekend, undefeated (and receiving AP Top 25 votes!) St. John’s visits Duke, and we’re trying to lather up our bile. (Seriously, look at Kyle Singler up there. Don’t you just want to shove his head in a toilet?) The Red Storm are unlikely to beat the Dookies — who are coming off a frustrating loss to Wisconsin in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge — but it should be a closer game than it has been in recent years. The Blue Devils are down, and, as we might have mentioned pretty much every day around here, the 6–0 Red Storm are up, up, UP.
The game is at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow on ESPN2 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. It’s not the end of the world if St. John’s loses, but boy, if they won? Hoo. So, seriously, lather up that bile. It’s easy if you let it.