Duke Basketball: It ain't what she used to be

By Jeff Miklos

When will voters and NCAA selection committee members stop giving Duke the benefit of the doubt? This is a program that has advanced past the round of 16 once since 2001. While some programs hang banners about Sweet 16 appearances, Duke holds themselves to a different standard. This is more troubling when you consider the seeds Duke receives. Only in 2007, when they were a number 6 and lost in the first round to VCU, have they been seeded lower than third during this era of tournament flops. Last year as a number two seed they were bounced in the second round by West Virgina.

Eventually voters and selection committee members need to notice this pattern and knock Duke down a few pegs. And it would be deserved. The hard truth is Duke does not have the players they once did. After Elton Brand, Corey Maggette and William Avery skipped town as underclassmen in 1999, Duke has dtheir recruiting tactics. No longer do they go after the best of the best. Yes, the players Duke signs are highly rated by the recruiting services, but I suspect that has more to do with the fact that they are recruited by Duke so the rags assign them higher ratings than if they were playing their college ball at, say, North Carolina State.

Duke now recruits players who will stay in school for three of four seasons. This has led to Duke teams that lack depth, athleticism and quickness. To get where Duke gets, they have to play their A game from the opening tip of the season. They can't have seasons where they start slowly and build to a peak in March because their talent level will leave them with a mediocre seed. If they take a night off in the regular season it is a certain loss. When you play your best basketball in November, you don't have another level to raise your game to in March. While this style of play leads to 25 win regular seasons and a high seed in the tournament, but when Duke plays teams like LSU, VCU and West Virgina, all schools that upset the Blue Devils the last three years, those teams that had inconsistent regular seasons have another level of game in March when they see Duke. They are peaking at tournament time while Duke looks like a shot team. The results speak for themselves.

I'm not complaining about Duke tripping up in the NCAA Tournament. I rather enjoy it. The only thing more irritating than listening to Duke, I mean Dick, Vitale call a Blue Devils game is listening to Thom Brenamen broadcast a game that Tim Tebow plays in. The Cameron Crazies are a played out group. They are not very clever, they think they are part of the game and I'm sure their parents are proud of the fact that they pay 30 grand a year to see their kids face painted on ESPN 28 times a season. They are more annoying than paper cuts. I just want to see the selection committee, and the national media, accept the new status quo for Duke basketball, that of just another team.