To be honest, I thought I would have written a post like this, but you have to give respect when respect is due. I won’t say that I have been a Duke hater in the past, but I never rooted for them at any point. I honestly believe that Coach K is the G.O.O.T (Greatest of our time) when it comes to head coaches. He is one of few coaches who has proven that he can win in multiple ways as well as garnering respect from his coaching peers, NBA players, current and past players as well. Let’s take a look at my 5 reasons that you can no longer hate Duke basketball.
1. Coach K- As I previously mentioned, Coach K is the greatest coach of our time. This is a coach who has an impact on the game of basketball that is bigger than just coaching. The morals of Coach K as a person has been well documented that he is equally as good as a person as he is as a coach. As a coach he is a father figure to his players, and he gets the most out of his players while they are playing for him.
2. You can’t hate greatness- Coach K has won his 5th title in 25 years, and is currently second on the all-time wins list behind Harry Statham. It is likely that Coach K will be the winningest Men’s college basketball coach of all-time when it’s all said and done.
3. Adapting to the game of College Basketball- Whether it’s coaching or developing upperclassmen such as Jay Williams, Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley, and Shane Battier or it’s coaching one-and-done prospects such as Kyrie Irving, Jahlil Okafor, and Luol Deng, Coach K has proven that he can coach at a high level no matter how the rest of college basketball looks. In the days where college players stayed three to four years he won titles, even in the era when the best college prospects went to the NBA he won titles, and now in the one-and-done era he won titles. Coach K has proven that can adapt to any environment of college hoops and continue to win.
4. Style of Play- People may not want to admit it, but Duke plays an exciting style of basketball. Man-to-Man pressure defense to go along with a high octane offense will always be effective and fun to watch when you have the players to coach that style of basketball. Duke plays basketball the right way and on a year to year basis they have adapted their styles based on who played on the team. It’s common that great teams are boring, but I can’t remember the last time a Duke team was boring.
5. Everybody hates John Calipari and Kentucky- I personally like Coach Cal, but as long as he is in college basketball coaching the Kentucky Wildcats people will hate them more than Duke based on the way how Coach Cal recruits. I believe Duke is still a hated team, but as of late it’s not comparable to the other team that dawns blue and white.
