The Blue Devils did one thing unthinkable on Sunday afternoon — they really made me like them. Conditioned on three a long time of familial loathing, I walked into the Lenovo Middle in Raleigh ready to be wrapped in Duke’s weighted blanket of disgust, lulling me into a cushty state of hatred. As an alternative I discovered myself falling in love with this iteration of the staff.
We don’t must re-litigate the explanations to hate Duke. It’s a speaking level which comes up each March, with no scarcity of assume items about race, privilege, and the Blue Devils embracing their position as school basketball’s “villains” to change into emblematic of brilliance and distain concurrently.
The present Devils are simply enjoyable. Actually enjoyable. Extra importantly: This staff is aware of how one can get pleasure from themselves and present emotion — one thing missing within the Duke groups of the previous. Underneath Coach Ok the Blue Devils have been ruthless, they have been environment friendly, however typically felt like they have been simply going by way of the motions. Working off a plan, like assembling a bit of furnishings. Jon Scheyer’s method to the sport has taken Duke into the fashionable period by embracing persona, permitting individuality, and nonetheless becoming these tenets into the Duke rubric.
All of it begins with Cooper Flagg, the eventual No. 1 decide within the NBA Draft, and arguably the very best U.S. prospect since LeBron James. Flagg’s footwork with the ball and array of strikes within the paint is surpassed by his courtroom imaginative and prescient and supreme basketball IQ as a passer which attracts in defenders, earlier than kicking the ball out to an open participant on the perimeter. On prime of all this there’s no cause to essentially hate him. It is a man who got here out of Maine, hardly a hoops recruiting hotbed, and has proven himself to be a humble staff participant with out an enormous quantity of ego.
Then there’s Khaman Maluach, the 18-year-old from South Sudan plucked out of basketball obscurity by a bicycle rider who satisfied him to earn the game at a camp organized by Luol Deng. Here’s a child who’s actually residing the dream, poised to be a Prime 5 decide within the NBA Draft himself, offering a life for his refugee household that they by no means may have presumably imagined. Nonetheless evolving as a basketball participant, Maluach’s ludicrous size and wingspan has already made him an elite shot blocker and rebounder, with a excessive motor and work ethic to hone his offensive recreation.
On Sunday towards Baylor it was the Tyrese Proctor present, which actually underscored how totally different this Duke staff is from its previous iterations. Proctor is a fringe NBA participant. It’s unclear if he’ll really get drafted, however in Raleigh the Australian was unconscious from past the arc, taking pictures an obscene 7-of-8 and being the most important distinction maker on the courtroom. This efficiency introduced Scheyer to tears after the sport, overjoyed at seeing Proctor shine on school basketball’s brightest stage, and reflecting what it’s meant to have the guard by his facet since taking on as Duke’s head coach.
“I feel on this period, you guys cowl this, you perceive the challenges and NIL and switch portal and all that, nonetheless to have the relationships you possibly can construct with a man for 3 years and undergo so much, I’m clearly actually happy with him.”
The shortage of a bellwether participant to hate actually impacts how a lot you possibly can dislike Duke this yr. There’s no Greg Paulus or Chris Duhon slapping the ground. No Grayson Allen tripping gamers with the effectivity of misplaced youngsters’s toys. No person who may even maintain a candle to somebody like Christian Laettner — and on prime of that there’s no Coach Ok to loom over the courtroom like Mr. Burns, becoming all of the items collectively.
As an alternative with the sport in hand on Sunday, Scheyer referred to as the last word fan-favorite transfer, subbing in his two beloved graduates walk-ons, Neal Begovich and Spencer Hubbard to shut out the sport. Hubbard specifically, a 5’8 level guard, doubtless enjoying the ultimate basketball video games of his profession, was welcomed into the sport with raucous applause and cheered for each time he touched the ball.
There’s merely no good option to hate Duke this yr outdoors of their followers, emblem, horrifying mascot, common historical past, and years of pent-up disgust. Certain, that’s sufficient to hate Duke as a assemble, however not this staff — who’re simply enjoyable, well-prepared, stuffed with emotion, and enjoying final staff basketball.
It’s a really unsettling feeling to really like a Duke staff. I hate them for that.