OT: Officially Worst Sports Year Ever

Submitted by mrider on

This for me has been the worst sports year I can recall in my short 23 years on this planet. The cherry on top was Duke winning that game tonight. I f'n hate Duke and I am sure a lot of you share my view. The Scheyer charge on what should have been an and-1 for Hayward... Sickening, the game wasn't about the refs, but still I like excuses damnit!

Anyway Michigan football had another depressing year as we all know, Michigan basketball season was a major crash and burn, the Leafs continue to blow balls, and the Raptors aren't much better (especially when Bosh leaves). And I cheer for the Bills /facepalm.

Anyway I felt like venting, and it is officially the worst year sports in my life in terms of results. But I guess that means next year will be totally awesome, Michigan 2010 National Champs anyone?

Bryan

April 6th, 2010 at 12:15 AM ^

but I really have no problem with Duke. They are a quality program that wins.

And M football had a bad year in 2009. This is 2010. We have things to look forward to, not to dwell on.

mrider

April 6th, 2010 at 12:18 AM ^

As I said, Michigan Wolverines 2010 champs. But I whole heartedly agree we shouldn't dwell on the past, especially when the future is so bright. Can't wait to see the product on the field, and on the hard court next year.

mrider

April 6th, 2010 at 12:30 AM ^

No, but your picking two programs that most sane college fans hate. Let's say you had said Syracuse, Xavier, Butler, WVU, Baylor and the list goes on and on. If any of those teams had won this tourny, especially Butler tonight, it would have made the sports year that much more tolerable.

WichitanWolverine

April 6th, 2010 at 10:06 AM ^

I never understood why people hate Duke so much around here. Duke's basketball program is pretty analogous to Michigan's football program: historic and perennially successful. If you're someone who always roots for the underdog, then why root for Michigan?

formerlyanonymous

April 6th, 2010 at 10:19 AM ^

It's called false dilemma. It's a logical fallacy. You feel like if you have to do one thing or the other. It makes no sense. Kind of like a 7 foot tall Wookie living on Endor with a bunch of 2 foot tall Ewoks. It just doesn't make any sense. Chewbacca on Endor doesn't make sense. If it doesn't make sense. You must acquit.

WichitanWolverine

April 6th, 2010 at 10:38 AM ^

Well -1 for completely misconstruing what I said. I never said you should root for teams who are perennially successful or historically comparable to Michigan. I'm saying if you hate teams because of that fact, which is what seems to be the case with Duke around these parts, then why root for Michigan?

And you bring up a good point about OSU. They are a relatively history/tradition-rich school/football program. I know I'm alone with this opinion, but I'd much rather see OSU succeed than MSU because of that. I'll root for OSU in a bowl game because I think they represent the B10 much, much better than Little Brother.

TheLastHarbaugh

April 6th, 2010 at 10:53 AM ^

I understand what you're saying it just doesn't make sense because you're trying to apply logic to something that it completely illogical.

I like Charles Woodson because he was a really good football player and he won the Heisman. I dislike Troy Smith because he was a really good football player and he won the Heisman.

So according to your logic, I should not like Charles Woodson because I dislike Troy Smith for doing essentially the exact same thing as Woodson.

TheLastHarbaugh

April 6th, 2010 at 11:15 AM ^

People dislike Troy Smith for the same reasons they like Charles Woodson.

People like Michigan football for the same reasons they dislike Duke basketball.

People like things because they like them. People dislike things because they dislike them.

It doesn't make sense because it doesn't have to make any sense.

People like rooting for Michigan. People like rooting for underdogs. Those two events are not mutually exclusive.

How hard is that to understand?

bouje

April 6th, 2010 at 12:35 AM ^

clean team. Like Michigan football. I don't get why Michigan fans hate Duke so much. I dislike Duke, but I respect the hell out of them and Coach K.

jmblue

April 6th, 2010 at 12:07 PM ^

We actually don't know how clean of a program they are. (There seems to be an assumption that teams with lots of white guys are automatically "clean".) Awhile back there was some fishy business involving Carlos Boozer, who seemed to have a Jamal Crawford-type living situation. I remember some stuff coming up about Luol Deng as well. But the NCAA never actually investigated so no harm, no foul, I guess.

They do have an outstanding graduation rate. The cynic in me wants to argue that at the elite private schools, it's basically impossible to flunk out, but even so, it's impressive.

ShockFX

April 6th, 2010 at 12:21 PM ^

Maggette was suspended for some games (15? IIRC) for agent contact. The Deng issue was actually around his older brother (Ajou) at UCONN and I don't think affected [Luol] Deng at Duke.

And before anyone weighs in with facts about grad rates, Duke grad rates from like 2000-2007 were pretty average, if not slightly below at times. Prior to 2000 and the last 3 years (excluding transfers) have been much better.

AKMuskie

April 6th, 2010 at 12:42 AM ^

I can understand why someone could hate Duke, but both of Michigan's respective coaches could end up similar to Coach K. Not guaranteeing any Final Fours just yet (although a BCS bowl could be in sights for RR), but Michigan could be seeing a significant turning point after all the misery our fans have had to put up with this year. Coach K had a slow start as well, as 60blue noted, and turned the program around into what it has become today. I absolutely hate the Duke fan base, but I can't help but appreciate the legacy of Coach K.

Zoltanrules

April 6th, 2010 at 12:45 AM ^

Probably the best NC game since UM vs Seton Hall. VERY entertaining game with no losers. Yeah Gene Hackman's picket fence play worked in Hoosiers with no time left, but this was almost as good.

I am a bigger loser because I had to sell my Frozen Four tix at a big loss. I am still in major pain over the UMscrew job, err loss to Miami and couldn't bear to watch the Frozen Four without UM.

If you want a winner, watch UM softball. Hutch's crew are awesome.

Zoltanrules

April 6th, 2010 at 10:21 AM ^

I was thinking about how great the 89' Seton Hall game was when yesterday they flashed how many lead changes there were and the shot of parents and fans emotionally drained long before the outcome was decided. Then the CBS announcers brought it up that yesterday's was the best NC game since '89. btw Seton Hall hit the rim at the buzzer in OT after Robinson's FTs. I thought the UM game was better played with clutch shot made after clutch shot - no 30 % shooting or long scoring droughts. ( Also the semi final with Illinois in 89 was another tremendous game).

ShockFX

April 6th, 2010 at 12:58 AM ^

You all realize that the majority of the country feels the same way about Michigan football as you all feel about Duke football right?

jmblue

April 6th, 2010 at 12:26 PM ^

You all realize that the majority of the Big Ten region feels the same way about Michigan football as you all feel about Duke football right?

Fixed it for you. Outside the Big Ten region most people are okay with us. Some Southerners hate us because we've done well against the SEC in bowls (and because Woodson beat their good ol' boy for the Heisman), but that's about it. Notre Dame football is a closer analogy to Duke basketball. (Well, except for the winning part.)

Fat Mike

April 6th, 2010 at 1:45 AM ^

Duke is the Michigan of basketball. They consistantly win every year, they go to the tournament every year, their coach is as classy as they get, and they have great fanbase. Coach K alone deserves this championship

burntorange wi…

April 6th, 2010 at 2:56 AM ^

read ur entire post wrong. anyways i still have issues with it: i tip my hat to scheyer, singler, and now zoubek for sticking in the program for 4 years and playing as seniors. as to the "they arent good enuf to be in NBA" argument that will of course come up wen reading this: ill give you zoubek but im sure at one point in time scheyer and singler have all been considered at least to be drafted. thatd be roughly 1m/year. not a lot of kids can turn that down(as shown by the spew of recent 1 and dones) but they did. thats deserving to me.

dakotapalm

April 6th, 2010 at 3:06 AM ^

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/24/sports/coach-k-gives-stately-duke-an-…

DURHAM, N.C., Jan. 23— Along with a reputation for clever and intimidating cheers, the students at Duke University relish their inspirational role in the performance of the school's basketball team. Mike Krzyzewski, the head coach, has gone to considerable lengths to foster that involvement, often lauding the students as his squad's ''sixth man.''

But an angry, profane locker room lecture by Krzyzewski to 10 invited guests from the student newspaper's sports staff now threatens to undermine that relationship. Even the popular coach's subsequent acknowledgement that the matter should have been handled differently has not altogether quelled fallout from his outburst.

''People on campus were surprised he would act like that, he would use profanity like that, he would act like that toward students,'' said Craig Whitlock, the editor of the student newspaper, The Chronicle. ''I think it hurt Coach K. somewhat.''

Already irritated by The Chronicle's recent coverage of his program, the coach grew upset after reading a column that gave his team and its members letter grades for their performances through the first half of the season. No player received lower than a C-plus. The team, 12-2 at the time and rated in the top 10 in the news-agency polls, got a B-plus.

Meeting Is Arranged

Krzyzewski considered the article inappropriate, as well as damaging to the confidence of several players. So last week, he had his secretary call Rodney Peele, sports editor of The Chronicle, to arrange what he regarded as a private meeting between the players and the students who cover them.

The get-together was held Jan. 15 after a late-afternoon practice in the school's 50-year-old arena, Cameron Indoor Stadium. Besides the 12-member basketball squad, several assistant coaches and the team trainer were on hand as Krzyzewski cursed and raised his voice while upbraiding the student-reporters for coverage that ''degrades my basketball team.''

Once he had spoken his mind, in comments that included scatological and anatomical references, and had given the largely mute reporters a chance to reply, the forthright Krzyzewski believed the matter was settled.

Assistants and team members regarded the outburst as simply the coach's sticking up for his players, and dismissed the profanity and the raised voice as stylistic quirks. ''From a player's perspective, I've learned to listen to what he says, not how he says it,'' said Alaa Abdelnaby, the senior forward.

Others were less understanding when Krzyzewski's remarks, taped surreptitiously by a student-reporter, were subsequently revealed in The Chronicle and the city's largest daily newspaper, The Durham Morning Herald.

Not the 'Best Way'

''I think the general feeling around campus would be that Mike may have had a point to make, but he didn't choose the best way to go about it,'' said Thomas A. Spragens, a political science professor and the school's faculty representative for athletics. ''It's unfortunate, because Mike usually represents himself and the university in a very classy way.''

Four days after the incident, Krzyzewski again invited the reporters to meet with him, this time in the stadium's press room and without anyone else present. While quoted as insisting he wouldn't change ''the substance of the meeting,'' Krzyzewski told The Chronicle he regretted the use of profanity and any perception that he had sought to intimidate.

''I haven't had too many experiences lately where what I said, the reason I said it, was misconstrued,'' Krzyzewski said in an interview today. ''I've got to be clearer.''

Early in his 10-year Duke tenure, Krzyzewski had a combative attitude toward the press, a posture that was perhaps acquired while he was a player under Bob Knight at West Point and later reinforced when he was a Knight assistant at Indiana. But as Krzyzewski's Duke teams became successful, he grew more relaxed, and until his run-in with the student paper, the coach's troubles with the news media had appeared a thing of the past.

''If he had approached things differently, then it wouldn't have been a story in the first place,'' said Peele, a senior from Fort Washington, Md. ''I think Coach K. learned a little more about how to handle the student media, and I think everyone else learned you can make someone out to be as much a saint as possible, but every now and then they're going to make mistakes, too.''

'Coach-Educator'

Krzyzewski is quite proud of the reputation he has built at Duke as a ''coach-educator,'' as he is billed in a national advertisement for a stock brokerage firm.

On the court, Krzyzewski's teams have become perennial contenders for national honors, with three visits to the Final Four since 1986. Entering the Blue Devils' contest with North Carolina State on Wednesday night, Krzyzewski has 216 victories at Duke, leaving him only 11 short of surpassing Eddie Cameron - for whom the school's basketball arena is named -as the most successful coach in Blue Devil history.

Krzyzewski has accomplished all this while graduating every player and running what many consider a model program.

Given that record, especially off the court, faculty and administrators were reluctant to criticize the coach when Krzyzewski's heated meeting with the student-writers became generally known. ''I thought it was an error in judgment and most people do, but you don't want to jump all over him, because he's a person of integrity,'' Spragens said.

Duke's president, Dr. H. Keith H. Brodie, publicly referred the matter to the school's athletic director, Tom Butters. But while Butters apparently worked behind the scenes to ameliorate the situation, he was quoted as saying the incident was a nonissue and warned that ''if The Chronicle chooses to make an issue of it, then I'm going to look at it very, very closely and somebody's going to come out the loser.'' Butters later said, ''I made a critical mistake in calling it a nonissue, although it is a nonissue.''

'Unfortunate Incident'

In a prepared statement, Brodie said Monday that he, Butters and Krzyzewski share ''respect for the contribution The Chronicle makes to the Duke community, and I hope that we can now put this unfortunate incident behind us.''

But in an editorial the same day the paper wrote that the ''behavior of Krzyzewski's superiors has been anything but honest and forthright'' and questioned Brodie's ability to exercise his authority over the athletic department.

''I essentially wanted some assurance that the university does not condone intimidation, at least that Coach K. was wrong, and I haven't heard that,'' Whitlock, the editor, said in a telephone interview Monday.

photo: Mike Krzyzewski: ''I haven't had too many experiences lately where what I said, the reason I said it, was misconstrued. I've got to be clearer.'' (AP)

evenyoubrutus

April 6th, 2010 at 9:43 AM ^

I really appreciate how you made your point in such few words. My next comment I post will be how this whole thing relates to the Civil War, and I will copy-and-paste the entire Wikipedia Page on the Civil War.

dakotapalm

April 6th, 2010 at 3:04 AM ^

I'm still wondering why the Duke 1999 Final Four appearance is still on the books when Corey Maggette was ineligible.

The things the NCAA does...

mgovictors23

April 6th, 2010 at 8:50 AM ^

I feel your pain. Michigan football and basketball, while having their moments, each struggled this year. Also the Pistons really let me down this year too. By now I'm just use to the Lions only winning around two games a year anyway.

jb5O4

April 6th, 2010 at 11:20 AM ^

For me its been one incredible high and a bunch of lows.

Highs:

Saints win the Super Bowl

Lows:
Michigan Hockey losing in tourney
Michigan Basketball
Alabama winning the BCS Title game
US Hockey team losing to Canada
Avalanche's late season slide
New Orleans Hornet's missing playoffs
Cubs losing 16-5 in first game