The two sides of hating Duke

Like any good freedom-loving American, I've got basketball on the brain today, seeing as how we're on the eve of the NCAA tournament and all. And of course my heart is decked out in Carolina blue, it's aorta clutching a retro pennant, and of course I'm getting my hopes up, having gone from "I'll just be happy if they get over .500" to "Final Four here we come!" But the team that's on my mind today is the Heel's rival down Highway 15/501, those fellas in the darker shade of blue (and sometimes, ridiculously, black): Duke.

As a Carolina fan, I (usually) revel in a Duke loss. But it wasn't always that way. I grew up overseas, but my family has always been a geographically proud one, and so my mother's North Carolina roots made the rule for basketball that Everything From North Carolina Is Good. We rooted for all four NC ACC teams equally, in spite of the fact that we were told that that's not allowed.

But in the late '80's, Duke started getting really good, and like a lot of other people, we started focusing on the Blue Devils. I harbored laughably ridiculous dreams of going to Duke and being in the crowd at Cameron. When those faded due to the slow hold I have on reality, I still cheered loudly for them, thrilling at their two championships in the early '90's, and though it hurts me now to admit, hollering like a madman when Christian Laettner hit his shot against Kentucky.

I continued my separate-but-equal allegiances to both Heels and Devils through the '90's, getting just as excited when the Heels won the championship in '93. I was constantly told that it's IMPOSSIBLE to like both teams, that it's AGAINST NATURE and JUST WRONG. But I did it anyway. I really had very little personal connection to the schools themselves. My love of both teams was a love of things from North Carolina. Period.

But then things changed, as things have a way of doing. I found myself living in Chapel Hill in '97, and got wrapped up in the Tar Heels. For a while, I accepted my new preference as moving on, but I held nothing against the Devils. I thought, "I can't get behind that" when a Franklin Street celebration mob started chanting, "Duke still sucks!" I rolled my eyes at the Carolina fans who angrily called Duke "the evil empire" and laughed at their ridiculous conspiracy theories. But while I never went that far, my new preference to Carolina got stronger, making me (I hate to say) hate Duke. I hated seeing them win, I got in a foul mood when Carolina lost to them. I wouldn't even root for them in the NCAA tournament. I couldn't stand them. I'd get riled up about the Devils in a way I hadn't since the Cowboys of the early '90's. It was stupid, hurtful and pointless, but I couldn't help it.

But then things changed, as things have a way of doing. I found myself with close friends who were huge Duke fans (and alum), people that I really liked and admired, and while I still enjoy the rivalry and rarely root directly for Duke, to say that my stance on the Blue Devils has softened is an understatement. Part of it is because liking someone who's a fan of a team puts a human side on it, instead of having an entire team and the city/school that goes along with it being some faceless, monolithic enemy. But that's really only a very small part of it.

The real reason (new paragraph for emphasis) that getting to know and like Duke fans took the hate out of the equation was not because I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings (though that's a quality reason), but mostly because I realized that it could just as easily be me. If I could have gone to Duke, I would have, and today I would be agonizing which JJ Redick will show up this weekend instead of wondering if Carolina's inexperience will doom them early. It made me realize how vague fandom really is, no matter how strong an emotion it can be. We could have ended up in a different city or at a different school, and everything has changed. It doesn't mean we can't enjoy rivalries or have teams that we love to see lose, but all those teams and cities are is the same people in a different place in different circumstances. This might be getting a site-wide "DUH!", but it's amazing how hard it can be to grasp sometimes.

That said (in the typical R7 way: at least five times too many words), while I've noticed that there are some Duke fans that have a grasp on the reasons that the team is hated (though often reasonlessly loved as well), there are some who don't quite get it. Let me essplain:

1. They're good. Often. This holds true for any team in any league. If you're good--meaning that you start beating up on other people's teams--the fans of those teams start to not like you. And they don't like you a lot. The more you beat up on them, the more they don't like you. It's an enviable position to be in.
2. Duke is a private school. This can't be avoided, and it's something that most people that I know have to deal with. Telling someone that you went to a school that cost upwards of $25k a year (like I did) has a tendency to produce some somewhat understandable prejudices in people, and when it's a private school that also beats other teams a lot, it's going to tend to bring out some pretty intense feelings
3. Huuuwwwwaaaahhhhh!!!! This is the one that always gets me. Just when I'm ready to recall a bit of my Duke-loving past and root for the Blue Devils (like last Sunday), out comes the tendency for the most weasely of Duke players to start pulling their schtick of grunting and pounding the floor and just generally being whiny and spastic, which, considering how skinny and puny they tend to be, looks like a prime example of overcompensating. Paulus is in the process of redefining this. Now, it's fairly obvious to me that Coach K encourages this, and let's be honest: it works. Really well. It give the players an intensity that consistently keeps the team in the to "sick number of wins" column. But let me fill in the Duke fans: if you're even remotely inclined to not be a fan of Duke, it's about the most annoying thing in the world.

So how do I feel about Duke this post-season? Well, considering my long past and recent feelings, it comes down to gametime. And it could switch at any moment, like when, say, a player starts swinging his arms like some kind of spaz and then gets surprised when a guy retaliates.

Also: go Duke! Also: boo Duke! Oh, I don't even know any more....