Didja Hear? Duke Lost to VCU ... And Everybody's Celebratin'

As the ACC blogger here at the Fanhouse, let me say that Duke's run of 9 straight Sweet 16 appearances is quite a feat and should be celebrated as such. Now that I got that out of the way, as a lifelong UNC fan that bleeds Carolina blue ... HA HA!

Duke finished off what was a nicely glum season by losing to VCU in their first round of the NCAA tournament. That comes one week after Duke lost in the first round of the ACC tournament. That came just days after Duke finished in 7th place in the ACC regular season. That came at the same time Coach K was heavily criticized for passing the buck when his player injured All American Tyler Hansbrough in the final UNC-Duke contest.

One thing that makes this old soul feel good is that Coach K was right there on the sidelines for this mess. In 1995, Coach K took a year off to take care of his back and assistant Pete Gaudet had to run a sub-par Duke program into it's worst season in the past 25 years. After that, Gaudet was run out of town and Coach K came back to rebuild the program. This year, he was right there with the team as it struggled to find it's identity and it's focus. And he was right there in the closing seconds as his player, Jon Scheyer, caught an arm to the grill that left him bleeding and leaving the court.

This team was built on defense this season, and when it mattered most ... they couldn't deliver. VCU's Eric Maynor scored six points in the final 84 seconds of this game, including the game winning shot, and there was nothing Duke could do to stop it. As punishment for Duke's regression, I think CBS should pull that stupid State Farm commercial of Coach K teaching a bunch of old guys basketball. Right now, I'd rather have Coach J.

As I said, Duke's nine year string of Sweet 16s is quite a nice feat and should be applauded. It's the 2nd longest streak in NCAA history. Second to North Carolina ... who went to 13 straight.

Ha. Ha.