Haters get ready! (a little testosterone for this blog)

The air is chilly and the landscape is filled with the warm colors of autumn leaves. For me, the contrast only means one thing...break out your programming schedules because NCAA mens basketball is just getting started. At last, ESPN coverage switches over to the real true heart of sports and puts the egotism and flimflam of professional sports on the backburner! The arrival of the season means the return of the team that has claimed basketball superiority from Tobacco Road-Duke.
The scouting reports and national polls have already antied up and thrown in their 2 cents on who is the top team in the nation. And to no surprise, the Duke University Blue Devils have the number 1 firmly stamped beside their name. I've been following the Blue Devils for 15 years now and this is a rating that I have come to expect out of the club. And while my loyalty to Duke only grows with each passing season (national title or not), so does the hatred and anomosity of others. It is no secret that Duke has become the team that all the other fans (we affectionately call them "Haters") love to hate. Quite the opposite from when they were considered boys against goliaths of men when they were the heavy underdogs against UNLV over a decade ago. Back then it was the Blue Devils, puppies and ice-cream and "amber-waves of grain". Everyone rooted for Duke. Now, haters fill the stands and try and get their licks in whenever the Blue Devils roll into town; and it isn't pretty. Expletives and vulgar homophobic slurs that sometimes are obsene fill the air-this is the ONLY way they can beat them. It is a confounding phenomenon totally out of character in amateur sports. Duke is the pride of Durham and is often seen as the team that denies the other North Carolina schools their tickets to the big dance (NCAA Final Four); UNC TarHeels (who are over-rated), NC State Wolfack, Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Players and coaches alike whine and call out favoritism towards the "snobbish and preppy" school; more publicity and more media coverage they say. I guess this is the price they will have to pay to be as good as they are.
A warning to those that love to hate...this year will be no different. Coack K and his staff have once again created a national title contender. The bench is DEEP. With 5 freshman players (all very capable of being starters), 2 of which are McDonald's All-Americans, and a returning cast of JJ Redick, Sheldon Williams, Sean Dockery and Demarcus Nelson-they will control the game and teams will find themselves thinking they are at a clinic on "How-To" play basketball.
Maybe the antipathy will continue and spread...the Duke women's team is also ranked.....#1
I still daydream of being a part of the Duke student body-the prestige the "mistique" and camping out in Krzyzewskiville and waiting to cheer my home team to a victory. Oh well, my 28 years of age wakes me up from that dream. But maybe I can live out my Duke fantasy vicariously through my son (or daughter). Honey-start saving now 'cause we WILL be Duke parents! :)
If you get a chance, even if you are not a basketball fan, try and catch a Duke game (especially a home a game), and see if you don't catch the blue fever. You won't be disapointed.