We all need Duke in the NCAA tournament now more than ever
This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning.
The first four days of the 2022 men’s NCAA tournament are in the books and we still have three No. 1 seeds advancing, we have a fun Cinderella team in Saint Peter’s to root for, and we have some other big-name programs like North Carolina, Michigan and UCLA in the Sweet 16.
But most importantly we still have the villain of the tournament moving on to fight another day.
I’m talking, of course, about Duke.
The Blue Devils survived quite a scare yesterday when they rallied late to beat Michigan State, 85-76. After leading for most of the game, Duke found itself down by five points with just over five minutes remaining. Mike Krzyzewski’s legendary career was so close to coming to an end and everyone on the internet was ready to dance on his coaching grave.
Coach K’s young team responded, however, and refused to let their coach entire retirement just yet.
In doing so, they helped all of us by making sure the team so many people love to hate is still around making things interesting heading into the second weekend of the tournament.
If you didn’t go to Duke chances are you hate Duke. You love to see Duke lose and love to boo them any chance you get. There isn’t another team in the tournament like that. It’s fun to dislike Duke.
If you’re a casual fan then you don’t really care how Arizona, Kansas, or Gonzaga – the three No. 1 seeds left – fare in a game. They just kind of blend into the whole picture and don’t make you feel any sort of way about them.
But if you’re a casual fan, or even a hardcore college hoops fan, chances are you perk up when you see Duke is in a close game and you get into the final few minutes more than you would for any other team.
That’s what makes sports fun! Villains are important. It’s like rooting against the Patriots if you don’t have a team in the fight. We all need a team that is universally disliked to bring us together and bring some more intensity out of a game that we normally wouldn’t care all that much about.
Is Coach K’s final season storyline getting annoying. Of course it is! But that adds even more to the whole villain situation. You know how crazy the internet is going to get when he loses and his career comes to an end? It’s gonna be bananas.
The more Duke wins the better the NCAA tournament will be. Hopefully the Blue Devils keep going because an Elite 8 matchup with Gonzaga would be absolutely tremendous.
Embrace the power of the villain, folks!
Quick hits: Charles Barkley’s bad bracket… Bob Huggins creeps everyone out… Drew Timme’s hilarious postgame interview… And more.
– Charles Barkley broke down his bad bracket over the weekend in an absolutely hilarious segment.
– Bob Huggins creeped everyone out with some bedroom talk.
– Gonzaga’s Drew Timme hilariously stopped himself from dropping a F-bomb on live TV and fans were in awe.
– College hoops fans rightfully loved this special moment between Juwan Howard and Tennessee’s Kennedy Chandler after Michigan’s win Saturday night.