As we get ready for the Duke/Butler matchup tonight, I thought it would be interesting to get my buddy (and Duke hater) LaRusso on the line to bash the Blue Devils.

John Paulsen: You’re a proud Duke hater, correct?

LaRusso: I am.

JP: What’s the biggest reason you hate Duke?

LR: It seems like, I don’t know if they have a sense of entitlement, but columnists, I guess ESPN, Dick Vitale, just seem to put them up on a pedestal a lot. They’re on TV all the time. They’re a good program — a top of the line program — so they’re going to draw attention. Like me, people hate them or people love them. One way or another they’re going to move the needle. So I think it’s a perceived elitist mentality of how they are so much better than everybody. They seem to get calls, they get more publicity than other schools. So I think that’s the driving factor.

JP: So one article I read listed like five reasons why people hate Duke and a commenter added a few more, so want to list them off and see what you think. So you think that they’re media darlings?

LR: Yes.

JP: They’re often compared to the Yankees, Cowboys and Patriots, and I guess the Lakers in terms of how much attention they get. I don’t like the Yankees comparison because it’s not like Duke can go out and outspend everybody. If anything, Coach K is at a disadvantage when compared with, say, North Carolina, in terms of recruiting because of Duke’s high academic standards.

LR: They do have tougher standards for academics. Some schools make concessions for athletes, I don’t know if Duke does that, it doesn’t seem like it. They always have smart kids. I don’t know if they’re on the same level as the Yankees and Red Sox. That’s all the media talks about. And in football, I’d probably say it’s more Cowboys — I don’t think the Patriots get much love. They’re probably more hated now than loved like they were when Brady first came up and they started winning. It seems to have flipped 180 on them.

JP: Well, we don’t have a local football team in Southern California, and if the Chargers aren’t on. We’re going to get the Cowboys because people either love them or they hate them. But it’s funny to me, because those teams that Duke is compared to — I hate them all. I don’t like the Yankees, or the Patriots or the Cowboys, so the fact that I’ve been a Duke fan since the days of Johnny Dawkins strikes some people as funny. I just gravitated towards the way that Coach K gets his kids to play night in and night out. We’ve talked about this in the past — I really take offense to this whole Yankees argument –

LR: I guess a better way to put it is that Duke is force-fed to us a little too much.

JP: Ok. I get it about Dick Vitale. There were some years there where he was way over the top in his love for Duke, and he was always doing their games, so I know that rubs a lot of people the wrong way. It’s sort of how annoying Pat Summerall and John Madden were when they were doing the Cowboys games in the early ’90s. But it’s not like there are a lot of columnists out there now who are just talking about how great Duke is.

LR: They were getting bashed because everyone thought they’d be the first #1 to go out, and they didn’t have any talent. I think that was more people wanting them to lose. I think if people looked at them at the end of the season then they probably were the top team because their big guys got better, so I think it’s just that people hate them as usual. I know that’s why I picked them to lose.

JP: The guy from the Kansas City Star — Jason Whitlock — wrote that CBS wanted Duke to make the Final Four because of the ratings so they put them in the easiest region.

LR: If you look at the next top three seeds in their region, Villanova was playing terrible at the end of the season. Baylor had a good season but they had never been a high seed so we weren’t sure how they’d respond and then Purdue, without Robbie Hummel.

JP: I buy that with Villanova and with Purdue, because West Virginia was the top #2 seed, and K-State and Ohio State were really good too. And those three went to the non-Duke region. But I wonder if it had more to do with geography since Duke was in the South.

LR: They’re supposed to do that S-curve thing, so in theory they were saying that Kentucky was the worst of the four #1 seeds. Which, when you look at the numbers, Duke had the #1 or #2 RPI, and had a really tough strength of schedule, so I think the perception was that they were the last #1, but the numbers didn’t say that.

JP: Yeah, when you look at the metrics, everything I saw had Kansas #1 and Duke #2. I just don’t think there was some master plan to get Duke to the Final Four, but that’s the perception, at least from Jason Whitlock’s point of view. But looking at my list of reasons why people hate Duke, the #1 reason to me is Christian Laettner.

LR: Yes!

JP: He started everything. I don’t really remember people hating Duke when Johnny Dawkins or Danny Ferry were playing, but I was younger at the time.

LR: And plus, they were still underdogs at the time.

JP: And then Laettner, I think it’s safe to say that he was kind of a dick on the court. I think he stepped on somebody’s head or chest or something.

LR: Yeah the “best game ever” tournament game against Kentucky.

JP: He was obviously a great college player, but he really turned a lot of people against Duke, and sort of put the spotlight on them as being the villain.

LR: He looked like the kind of kid that grew up at the country club and I could see him saying things like, “you’re going to valet my car after you graduate.”

JP: Then it seemed like there was a quiet time when there wasn’t really anyone to hate.

LR: I hated Wojciechowski. He was an irritating little gnat. He seemed to do the slapping the floor thing a lot. And that got really old.

JP: Yeah, Duke haters definitely don’t like the slapping of the floor.

LR: It’s cool, just not when Duke does it.

JP: Even though they invented it?

LR: Yeah. Exactly.

JP: Then Greg Paulus came along and people hated him, but I don’t really know that he did anything on the court to deserve that. Like I remember Laettner doing things on the court that would rub people the wrong way, but I don’t remember Greg Paulus walking around like his shit didn’t stink.

LR: Well, don’t forget Redick.

JP: I was going to bring him up too. But I know a lot of people hate Paulus.

LR: I didn’t see anything wrong with him.

JP: So as a Duke hater, you don’t hate Paulus, but Redick you hated?

LR: Actually, it’s funny, I actually liked Redick. I don’t know why. I mean, the way he could shoot, it was unbelievable. And they didn’t show him being cocky and saying stuff. He seemed to have a pretty even demeanor on the court.

JP: What I noticed with him was that he started maybe in his junior or senior year doing some stuff to egg the crowd on, but he took a ton of abuse before that.

LR: I think I liked him because he took a lot more than he gave.

JP: Now people don’t like Coach K — do you have any issue with him?

LR: I was thinking about that when I was watching Michigan State because I don’t like Tom Izzo either. And every coach does this — they expect every call to go their way, and if something doesn’t go exactly the way they want it to they get all upset. I think there’s just too much overexposure with Coach K. He had the American Express commercials, coach of Team USA, and all the NBA players are gushing about him and how great of a coach he is. I mean, I could roll the ball out with those guys and frickin’ win the Olympics.

JP: Larry Brown couldn’t.

LR: Well, he didn’t have the quality of players —

JP: But that was his fault.

LR: Coach K had the players that cared about basketball and knew how to play. He didn’t have the Iversons, the Marburys, and those d-bags. And he sounds really condescending when I see him do interviews, maybe not condescending, but snarky.

JP: I look for that, but I don’t see it. I mean, I spent five years listening to Bo Ryan talk, so that may have something to do with it. I think from the arguing with the refs standpoint, he doesn’t do it any more or any less than anyone else, but since Duke is on TV so much, we’re always going to get a shot of him talking to the officials when a call doesn’t go his way.

LR: I’d agree with that.

JP: Where we wouldn’t see his opponent necessarily doing that if the tables were reversed.

LR: Yeah, it’s a function of Duke being on TV all the time.

JP: A lot of people don’t like the Duke fans. Do you have any issue with them?

LR: It’s hard to say — were they like that when Duke wasn’t that good? I guess I don’t have a problem with them, they usually seem pretty creative, but they don’t seem as creative as they used to be. It seems like they’ve fallen into a rut and they’re doing the same things over and over. They don’t come up with the funny chants they used to, or maybe we just don’t hear them.

JP: Well, some people don’t like that the student body is basically all-white, elitist, private school crowd, and they act like they’re above everybody else. I actually went to a game at Cameron and saw Chris Paul when he was with Wake Forest, and they were like #2/#3 in the nation. One of the chants that the crowd did was “can’t go to Duke, go to Wake” and “safety school, safety school.” But I think any student at any school has a rival that they think they’re better than. Look at Ohio State/Michigan. No one is calling Michigan fans elitist if they come up with some chant about Ohio State.

LR: The nice thing that Duke does that a lot of other schools don’t do is that they put their student fans right on the court, closer to the action.

JP: Yeah, they’re actually able to reach out and touch the opponent, which has to be disconcerting.

LR: That’s probably part of it too. Duke fans actually think they’re the sixth man and that they can help the team win. And they probably can.

JP: We talked a little about winning before. I looked it up — at the end of the regular season, Duke has been ranked in the top 10 in 20 of the last 25 seasons. That’s pretty amazing. So even though they haven’t won a title in like nine years, they’re always right there at the end of the regular season.

LR: And like anything, when you’re on the top too long people are going to nitpick you and try to knock you down.

JP: Do you have any issue with this year’s team? Is there anyone you don’t like?

LR: Um… Not really, no. I don’t know if I really dislike Lance Thomas. But like you said before, I play basketball the same way those guys do, so I don’t know why I find it so irritating.

JP: I know you didn’t like Jon Scheyer for a while.

LR: I’m all right with him now. He’s a good player. He doesn’t do anything wrong. He just plays the game, so I can’t really get too upset with him. They were hyping him up a lot more before, but he’s developed each year and has turned into a really good player. So he does deserve the publicity he gets.

JP: People on the thread were complaining about all these different Duke players and what I noticed were that all of them were white. Nobody seems to have a problem with the black Duke players.

LR: No.

JP: Fans just don’t seem to like good white players at Duke. Nobody begrudged Kevin Love at UCLA or Adam Morrison at Gonzaga. It just seems like Duke has a steady stream of good, white players and they always seem to be the target of people’s hatred. That’s just odd to me.

LR: It’s weird — it’s like the perception is that if a black player is a good player then he’s there because he worked hard, and I think the perception is that if a white kid is really good and goes to Duke, then he must have been a country club-type, like he had a shooting coach and didn’t have to work all that hard on his game.

JP: What about flopping?

LR: Oh, god. Yeah, I hate that. And Duke does do it a lot. And the perception is that the refs give a lot more charge calls to Duke.

JP: I think Duke did bring that to the forefront, you know, 15 years ago. They really took advantage of the charge. They were the first team that I remember that took a ton of charges. But it’s hard to blame them. These guys just go charging down the lane, they’re not trying to avoid anybody, and they just run guys over. And then they’re surprised when they’re called for a charge.

LR: I don’t like it, but I agree. Battier was the first guy I remember who took a lot of charges.

JP: And I’ve talked to refs about this before — if you don’t sell the call by falling down, you’re not going to get the call. I mean, if a guy charges into you and you maybe get knocked back but keep your feet, you’re not going to get the call. You have to sell it. I think they need to go with the NBA rule where there’s a semicircle below the basket and if you’re inside that area, it’s automatically a block.

LR: Yeah.

JP: Finally, to wrap this up, who are you rooting for tonight?

LR: Butler. But I think Duke will win. The only reason because by the end of the year, the Plumlees and Zoubek figured out how to play basketball. They were soft in the middle the whole year until about a month left in the season and now, if I would have seen them play like this, I probably would have picked them to go to the Final Four. I can’t believe people don’t let Zoubek, Thomas and the Plumlees try to score 20. They’d probably miss shots wide open. But it’s probably human nature to collapse to the middle and then you leave those three-point shooters open. And you can’t leave those three open.

JP: They get so many three point opportunities on the offensive glass. The shot goes up, and the defense boxes out and then attacks the rebound, but when Duke gets it back, they’re looking to kick it out to Scheyer, Singler or Smith for an wide open three. And it’s tough to keep track of your man after the shot goes up because you’ve been trained to go rebound the ball.

LR: Just block out your guy and stay with your guy. You have to stay with those shooters. Let someone else get the rebound. Let Zoubek shoot the ball. He doesn’t look to shoot when he gets the ball right underneath the basket.

JP: We’ll see tonight if Brad Stevens follows your advice.

LR: I doubt it.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Barnes is from Iowa and Marshall is from Virginia, while Bullock is from North Carolina — maybe that has something to do with it.

Israel Gutierrez of Miami Herald writes that everyone hates Duke, and it starts with Mike Krzyzewski.

No one wants Duke to win (Duke alumni excluded, of course). Not even a game. Not even a half.

Everyone hates Duke, and we’re not even sure why. For some reason, we know that if the devil had a face, it would have little beady eyes (like Mike Krzyzewski’s). If he had a voice, it would be nasally and annoying (like Krzyzewski’s) and if he had a name, it would be impossible to spell and the sound would follow no laws of language (like, well, you know).

Well, we all know that first part isn’t true. Any successful program/franchise is going to have fans outside of its alumni base and the Blue Devils are no different. Some might call these “bandwagon” fans, but as a 12-year-old back in 1986, I really liked Johnny Dawkins and loved the color blue, so I rooted for them all the way to the final, where they lost to Louisville. (Damn you, Pervis Ellison! And the color red!)

There’s no arguing that he elevated a basketball program into elite status upon arrival. From 1986 to 1999, he reached a ridiculous eight Final Fours and won those memorable back-to-back national championships, when NCAA basketball was still drenched with NBA talent.

But since then, it seems a lot of his colleagues have placed themselves in similar company, and yet, the head Blue Devil remains the most arrogant of the bunch.

To this day, he carries around a superiority complex that doesn’t match the success — at least not in the past decade.

Just last weekend, when he was asked about Duke’s “drought” about not reaching the Final Four since 2004, Krzyzewski offered this ego-heavy response.

“There are two words when you compete that are interesting — `since’ and `never,’ ” he said. “I’m glad we’re in the `since.’ ”

That’s not the most considerate thing to say when you’re about to face a Baylor coach who was on the “never” side of that coin.

But that’s who he is.

Gutierrez uses words like “arrogant,” “superiority complex” and “ego-heavy,” but what is this based on — that quote about “since” and “never”? Really? I’ve heard Krzyzewski interviewed plenty of times, and while he’s justifiably confident (not unlike any of his less-successful peers), he never has come off as cocky, at least not to me. Maybe he tires of the same questions over and over and he’s determined to put those last few tournament exits into perspective.

I’m sure this is a case of the “eye of the beholder,” but it’s the same type of rhetoric we hear about the players being elitist. Aside from Christian Laettner and J.J. Redick, which Duke players have walked around like their shit didn’t stink? And doesn’t every successful program have a couple of cocky players like those two in their history?

It comes with the territory.

Somehow, though, Krzyzewski carries a sense of entitlement, even on the court, when he attempts to, and often does, intimidate officials. Ask any Hurricanes fan who watched the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament semifinals and you will be convinced it was his complaining that changed the direction of that game.

Let’s assume that Coach K is more successful at working the officials than his peers. We’re supposed to hold this against him? One way or another, every coach in the country works the officials from tip-off to the final buzzer, hoping to get his team their fair share of calls because they know the guy down at other bench is doing the exact same thing. Again, Gutierrez uses an ambiguous, subjective phrase like Krzyzewski “carries sense of entitlement” — what does this even mean?

Look, I don’t hold it against anyone if they dislike one team or another for being successful. I don’t like the Patriots or Yankees for a variety of reasons, but my reasons aren’t all that subjective. This ambiguous “air” that surrounds the Duke program is not as cut-and-dried as the Patriots’ videotaping the opponent’s sideline or stonewalling the press when they ask about it. It’s not as black and white as buying up all the good free agents and outspending every other team in the league in the hopes of buying another World Series title (even though the Yankees are just taking advantage of a broken system).

Duke haters throw around subjective terms like “arrogance” or “elitist” as if they are provable personal characteristics. Maybe the Duke student body or a few stars from years past are guilty of these traits, but this Duke team is neither arrogant or elitist. And that goes for the coach, too.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

The Week has a piece that outlines five theories why everyone seems to hate Duke.

1. Americans hate monopolies, and love underdogs: Think of Duke as Microsoft, says workplace psychologist Paul Damiano, as quoted in Newsweek. Duke’s basketball prowess, like Microsoft’s software near-monopoly, makes people mad. Americans love underdogs that fight for victory with few resources. Conversely, we hate dominant businesses and sports teams — the New York Yankees are a prime example — on the assumption they buy the best players, or get cushy treatment from the regulators (“aka the referees”). Case in point: Many writers have complained that Duke got easy opponents to help it go far in the tournament, because Blue Devil hatred translates into good TV ratings.

Sure…only Duke hasn’t been to the Final Four in six years. They are still a top 10 basketball program, certainly, but they aren’t the dominant program they were in years past. If that were the case, why doesn’t everyone hate North Carolina or Michigan State? And I don’t like the comparison to the New York Yankees. Duke can’t go around and buy up all the best free agents. If anything, Coach K is at a disadvantage due to Duke’s stringent admission standards.

2. The “Cameron Crazies”: No school has more infamous fans than Duke’s Cameron Crazies, says John Gasaway in Basketball Prospectus. And many Duke haters believe the rowdy — some would say obnoxious — student fans who cram into Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium for home games and relentlessly taunt opposing players give their team an unfair advantage. Or, as a student at nearby arch-rival University of Carolina put it: “When I see those Dookie boneheads shoe-polishing their faces navy blue on television, squandering their parents’ money with their fratty elitist bad sportsmanship antics and Saab stories, I want to puke all over Durham.”

Really, we’re going to ask a Tar Heel fan to comment about the Cameron Crazies? That’s like asking Sarah Palin to comment on Dennis Kucinich’s single-payer health care plan. I suspect even most Duke haters wish that their team had a home court advantage like Duke does. Unfair advantage? Give me a break.

3. Coach K: Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski inherited a team that was down on its luck 30 years ago, and rebuilt it into a dominant force in the basketball-addicted Atlantic Coast Conference. Duke haters find Krzyzewski “annoying and self-important,” and they love to mock his nasal twang. Coach K is a constant presence, says Monte Poole in the Oakland Tribune, and, depending on whether you’re a Duke supporter or a fan of another school, he’s “either your own personal god or he’s wearing horns and holding a pitchfork.”

I can absolutely understand not liking a certain coach’s style or demeanor. For example, K-State’s Frank Martin drives me nuts the way he stomps around on the sideline (often wandering onto the court during play) screaming at his players and staring down officials. But you have to give Coach K credit — he turned Duke into a top tier program and has never even had a sniff of any impropriety or recruiting violations. His teams are always at or near the top in terms of wins and graduation rates. That’s hard to do in such a cutthroat business. Plus, he wrangled 12 of the biggest egos on the planet and guided Team USA to a gold medal in Bejing. That has to be worth something, even to those that hate him.

4. “Elite” is a bad word: Duke is an elite school — expensive, with high academic standards, and a high graduation rate for its athletes. The pride Duke’s coaches, players, and fans take in the school’s academic reputation comes across to fans of rival programs as just another example of Duke’s arrogance. Duke is always included in lists of college athletic programs “capable of properly balancing academics and athletics,” says Ben Miller in The Quick and the Ed, and such talk makes its team stand out as a teacher’s pet in a basketball world full of huge state schools, some of which have trouble with low graduation rates.

I’ve been following Duke basketball since the (playing) days of Johnny Dawkins and I don’t once remember a Duke player talking about how high the school’s academic standards are. Besides, does anyone hate the basketball teams from Stanford, Cal or any of the Ivy League schools because they’re difficult schools to get into? Now, it’s understandable if people dislike the Duke student body because they’re a bunch of spoiled white kids, but the Duke basketball team doesn’t have anything to do with that.

That said, I fully admit that there was an era — let’s call it the…um…Christian Laettner era — where there was a certain air of elitism emanated by a few players on the team. This era’s namesake along with (maybe) Bobby Hurley ruffled more than a few feathers in their day. But since then — can anyone really accuse Grant Hill, Elton Brand, Shane Battier, Jason Williams, Carlos Boozer, Shelden Williams, Mike Dunleavy, Luol Deng, Corey Maggette, Dahntay Jones, Gerald Henderson, Jon Scheyer or Kyle Singler of being elitist on the court?

Oops, I forgot about J.J. Redick. Still, there was a long gap there…

5. It’s about money: Duke hatred is class warfare, says Al Lee in Payscale.com. Of all the teams in the NCAA tournament this year, Duke ranks No. 1 in alumni wages, with the average ex-Dukie making $104,000 a year. Thats nearly $30,000 more than alums make at the top seeds in the other regions in the tournament, and it’s more than twice the figures for the tournament schools at the low end of the pay scale.

Well, I doubt very many Duke haters out there can quote any alumni wages, but maybe I’m wrong.

In the end, I think it’s a combination of all of these factors. Duke is a top tier program (monopoly), with an extremely spirited yet bratty student body (Crazies), that has remained squeaky clean (Coach K) and has an air of superiority (elitism) that surrounds them. Or at least that elitism is perceived to be there…by people who hate the program. It’s a vicious cycle, I say.

I don’t care. I like the Blue Devils. Coach K always has good teams that play good defense and take care of the ball. The Cameron Crazies are just icing on the cake.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Per SI.com (via the Dan Patrick Show)…

“If [a kid is] good enough, he should be allowed to come right out of high school,” Kryzewski said.

But Coach K thinks if a player does go to college, he should take academics seriously.

“If they go to college, they should be there long enough to take core courses that could eventually lead to a degree,” Kryzewski said. “Otherwise it’s a sham.”

When the NBA age-limit rule was implemented, I conducted a study that found that players that were drafted straight out of high school had a higher success rate than players that were drafted out of college or via international ball.

I think the best system would be to allow high schoolers to be drafted, and if they go undrafted, they’re able to enter college. Once they do enter college, they’ll have to play a minimum of two years. That way, the players that are NBA-caliber at 18 can go straight to the league, while those that need seasoning will have to put in a couple of seasons on the collegiate level. The two-season minimum is to ensure that these players will put in some academic effort while in school (which will hopefully result in a degree somewhere down the line). One season isn’t enough. Right now, players have to pass just six hours in the first semester to be eligible to play for the entire year. That’s a joke.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Before becoming one of the most hated college basketball players in the country, Greg Paulus was a really good football player in high school.

Paulus, 6-foot-1, 180 pounds, was a four-time all-state player at Christian Brothers and a starter in the U.S. Army All-American game, and set six state passing records. Christian Brothers was 42-3 during his time there, and he had 11,763 career passing yards and 152 touchdown passes in 45 games.

Paulus visited the Michigan campus this week and TonyBlogs.net says that he’d be eligible to play right away.

Although Paulus played four years at Duke, he has one year of eligibility remaining for football under NCAA rules. He would also not have to sit out a year if he transfers, as he would if he were switching to play basketball, which would allow him to potentially be the starting quarterback for the Wolverines in 2009.

By most accounts, Paulus was a better football player than basketball player in high school, though he was obviously pretty good in both. I’d like to see him have some success in this endeavor after Coach K benched him mid-season to give the Blue Devils a more athletic lineup.