Duke Can Suck It

The Coach K Public Relations machine known as Duke can suck it. As a Tarheel fan, last nights 88-70 win over Duke may be the most satisfying win ever. It was especially gratifying to see Tarheel and all-around good guy Tyler Zeller have an outstanding game. It was also a game for the ACC regular season championship.

When Coach K first started coaching in the ACC, he railed against UNC and the ACC saying that Dean Smith did whatever he wanted to and the ACC let him and he referred to that as the "Dean Smith rules." Now Coach K does whatever he wants to and gets away with it but I have never heard him refer to it as the "Coach K rules."

Going into halftime, I thought Coach K made a classless move by sending his lackey, Associate Head Coach Chris Collins, to do the interview with ESPN. I am pretty sure the ACC has informed its head coaches to cooperate with the media and I think that Chris Collins handled it well. The point is, that should have been Coach K's ferret face in front of ESPN's camera but I am sure he didn't want to have to try to explain a 24 point halftime deficit. The PR machine couldn't put a positive spin on that big of a number.

Duke Center Miles Plumlee is a classic Duke big man in the tradition of Danny Ferry, Christian Laettner, and more recently Greg Newton. Plumlee is a solid player but all of the complaining and gesturing to the refs about calls takes away from his game. Seeing him crying at the end of the game when he fouled out on Duke's Senior Night was somehow apropos.