Friday, March 03, 2006

Duke basketball = hate it or hate it

Considering Wongdoer roots for Duke because he has no allegiance to any other adoptive school (like Georgetown, which he rooted for in the 80s; and to our Aussie readers, "root" means cheer on, not what you lot use it to mean), he may not wish to read about how Duke hatred is so justifiable. Alston Ramsay explains in his essay on the eve of Carolina-Duke II for the 2005-06 season.

My favorite Duke game was when UVa played at Duke in the '94-95 season and I went to a bar near law school to watch with a couple of friends (Dookies). I sat quietly and self-deprecatingly through the first half while Duke rolled up a 40-19 halftime lead -- after all, Duke had a decent team and although it was 0-3 in the ACC at that point, no one expected things to remain that way . . .

In the second half, Virginia still trailed by nearly 20 with 11 minutes left . . . then started clawing back. Slowly but surely the Cavs cut the deficit and I continued making comments to the Dookie crowd of "don't worry, your team never loses after getting a big lead at home; every team makes a second-half charge and with that big of a deficit will fall short, etc."

Three minutes later, Junior Burrough ended a baseline drive with a slam; I jumped out of my seat and yelled "BOOM" as the Cavs took their first lead. Four more minutes of game time, and 2 OTs thereafter and Virginia had pulled off a 91-88 win in that oversized high school gym the Dookies inflate to a "Stadium".

Beating Duke. Always a good.

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