NCAA Basketball

Is It Time To Label Duke Basketball As NCAA Tournament Chokers?

Duke bowed out of the NCAA Tournament last night with a shockingly one-sided 93-77 loss to Arizona. Pretty much everyone who’s not a Duke fan was delighted over this – Duke’s viewed as the Yankees of college basketball, the perpetual favorites, the haves, the guys who are always winning…all tied together with a snooty private school bow. But that’s only an image, and the Dukies’ actual recent NCAA Tournament performance suggests maybe we should stop looking at them that way.

Sure, Duke’s national championship last season – over potential ultimate Cinderella Butler, no less – reaffirmed their perception as the big, bad, fun-destroyers of college basketball. (Lines like this from coach Mike Krzyzewski didn’t help, either.)

But after last night’s Arizona loss, that national championship represents the only year out of the last seven in which Duke hasn’t lost to a lower seed in the NCAAs. This year, it was Arizona. 2009: Villanova (a 2-seed vs. 3-seed, but a blowout). 2008: West Virginia. 2007: VCU. 2006: LSU. 2005: Michigan State. It’s quite the record of losing to lower seeds – much of it done as a top seed, and none of it done beyond the Sweet 16.

And so it has to be asked: has the Duke basketball program earned a reputation as chokers? The national championship is a massively important exception, to be sure, but it was an exception, based on how Duke’s performed in recent years. At the very least, they’ve been a disappointing NCAA Tournament team overall.

But “chokers” would be overstating it, we think. First of all, Duke won a national title a year ago. That should earn a reprieve from any “choker” accusation for a few seasons, at least. You can say they’ve underperformed, you can say you don’t trust them during the Sweet 16 and beyond, but “chokers” is a pretty harsh term for such a recent champ.

There’s a more important reason we shouldn’t – can’t – label them as chokers, and that’s this: wouldn’t it make Duke less fun to root against? If we expect them to lose games they should win on paper, then what’s the fun when they do?

Of course every non-Duke fan wanted Butler to win last year, but there’s no question Duke’s win made it more fun to hate them. The one year out of the last seven they don’t lose to a lower seed, and it’s the one year where if they had, it would have produced one of the greatest storylines in college basketball history? It’s almost too perfect for purposes of sports hatred, and it’s enough not to expect – for a while, at least – that they’ll regularly blow games in similar situations. So no, Duke’s not a bunch of chokers…and college basketball is more interesting that way.

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