There's going to be some overblown, overstated, overreactive commentary after every full day of the NCAA Tournament. Today, Mike Freeman of CBS Sportsline gets the award, and The Monk doesn't even have to read any other columns! This one excerpt shows why:
Now, the Blue Devils dynasty is officially done after suffering its first opening-round loss in over a decade. Goodnight, Dukies. You're not much better than Rutgers.
Whoa! Freeman is either ignorant or willfully blind. After all, the Duke dynasty ended in 1995 after Pete Gaudet's fill-ins went 4-15, Duke stumbled to 13-18, the run of six Final Fours in seven years ended with no post-season whatsoever, and then the team didn't even get past the second round of the NCAAs for another two years (losses to Eastern Michigan in round 1, 1996; Providence in round 2, 1997). Oh yeah, Duke then rattled off nine-straight Sweet 16 appearances (1998-2006), three Final Fours (1999, 2001, 2004), a national title (2001) and eight #1 seeds in those nine years (the Dookies landed a #3 in '03). Considering Duke's recruiting class for next season is rated #3 by Scout.com, and it still has Coach K to mold the players, claiming that the dynasty is dead and comparing the Dookies to Rutgers is . . . actually quite stupid.
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