Why all the hatred for Duke?

As I wrote about earlier, I am not a huge college basketball fan. Compared to the NBA, I find it to be very dry and boring. As such, I’ve watched approximately 10 minutes worth of college basketball this season. However, I have not always felt this way and I have followed college basketball in the past. After reading the sports columns today, it sounds like not much have changed. Kansas and Kentucky still field powerful basketball programs and everyone hates Duke. 

Almost immediately following the official announcment of the tournmant pairings, my Twitter feed was alive with angry college basketball fans and “experts” railing against the NCAA for “giving” Duke a #1 seed. Jason Whitlock from the Kansas City Star, penned a column setting out his own unique Duke/NCAA conspiracy theory.  I read all of these posts, comments and columns and was left scratching my head–why all the Duke hate?

It seems like it’s been popular to hate Duke as long as I can remember.  My interest in college basketball reached its peak in the late 90′s early aughts, when I was a college student myself. Although, I considered myself a fan of the game back into my grade school days  and throughout middle school and high school. During this time period, Duke won several national titles and appeared in even more Final Four’s.

Though I have no connections to the university and wouldn’t consider myself a Duke fan, I’ve always admired their basketball program and enjoyed seeing them win. They’re led by a class-act coach and recruit only high-character student athletes to represent their university. Lacrosse aside, you seldom hear any negative stories regarding Duke student athletes, nor do you read of any NCAA investigations into their program. Why is that since I’ve watched college basketball everyone seems to hate Duke.

I remember a comment from one of my friend’s father when we were in high school. We were at his house, filling out our brackets for a tournament in the late 90′s. They were giving me grief for picking the Blue Devils to win the national championship. My friend’s father rushed to my defense and issued this line: “You guys only hate Duke because they can play basketball and know their ‘A,B,C’s’ “.

There’s no doubt that among serious contenders, Duke has the most literate roster. Does this factor into the mass hatred for Duke? Because not only are the athletes successul on the court, but also successful off the court?

I’m interested in hearing theories….