Dear old Duke

In a year when the basketball world was screaming that the ACC was weak, in a year when the Big 10 finally beat the ACC in the Big 10/ ACC challenge, in a year when everyone had their bracket busted in the second round when Northern Iowa stole the Jayhawks wheat and shoved their chalk, well you get the point. There stands Duke, representing the good that’s left in the game with their heart, hustle and desire to play for the name on the front of their jerseys instead of the back as so many players do these days. I’m so sick of these "one and done" players that just use the college basketball stage to build their resume for the NBA. Those guys don’t deserve to win the national title, and this year they didn’t. The team that played their hearts out for the love of the game and their school and coach won it all. Many people, including myself, thought that those Dookies had run their course and old coach K didn’t have it in him anymore. After all, there was a new sheriff in town who goes by the name of Roy Williams, and when Ol’ Roy came home in 2003 let's face it; he was the new Lord of Tobacco Road. But, in a season after one of the greatest championship runs ever, Lord Roy found himself and his boys in a unfamiliar place called the NIT, while their arch rivals - that they love to hate so much - are off in Indianapolis cutting down the nets for the 4th time in 19 years. A very crazy year in the college basketball world to say the least, and while we sit around and gripe about how our Orange blew it, or how we can’t believe our Wildcats lost to WV, or how in the world our chalk rocking Jayhawks got beat by Northern Iowa, or how the beloved Tarheels had one of the worst seasons in school history and missed the big dance completely, let's be thankful that a team that plays and works hard and that is not full of NBA talent did it and did it well. Whether we accept it or not, you can count on one thing, and that is if you’re within 100 miles of Durham tonight, I’m positive you’ll be able to hear those crazies singing.....

"Dear old Duke, thy name we'll sing,....

To thee our voices raise, we'll raise.....

To thee our anthems ring....
In everlasting praise."