And it’s my belief that Vitale (and ESPN) represent the biggest reason America HATES Duke.
Vitale is the biggest name in college basketball. He has the biggest platform and he uses it to push his love for Duke. Fans are sensitive about their teams. They know when the media is ignoring their team in favor of some other team. I like Dickie V, but he is a lapdog for Duke basketball. He is their mascot. He fawns over the Duke players, he fawns over the Cameron Crazies, and his nonstop glorification of Duke and Mike Krzyzewski gets on people’s [expletive] nerves!
Let’s return to his rant: What is there to hate about a bunch of kids that play hard, play with feeling, play with intensity, play the right way, go to class, get their degrees, do things with integrity.
When I first heard that I literally started screaming at the top of my lungs: “[Expletive] Dick Vitale! Duke aint the ONLY SCHOOL with players who play hard and go to class.”
His utterly clueless, and yes, sanctimonious rant represents the EXACT reason we hate this damn school.
– Keith Smooth, the Dark Prince of Satire.
Smooth makes a series of decent points in the post but I don’t necessarily agree on all of them. I’m with him 100% on hating Duke in large part because of ESPN and Vitale’s glorification of the school, though.
I don’t care for Vitale’s whole shtick, either. I know he’s a divisive figure, but I can’t stand any broadcaster who works to make himself larger than the game he’s covering, and Vitale’s Public Enemy No. 1 in that realm. This is also why I don’t care for John Sterling. I’m not watching the game to hear your stupid signature calls. I just need you to tell me what’s happening.
Anyway, nothing bothers me more than when I’m watching a non-Duke but Vitale-called college hoops game and Vitale finds some tenuous reason to bring up Duke. “HEY, you know, UConn’s guards are great, baby! But for my money, no guard in the nation is better than Scheyer at DUKE, baby!”
It’s annoying.
Meanwhile, if Duke wins Saturday, I stand to win $500. And I’m still rooting for West Virginia. And I could really use $500.
Tedquarters 
I don’t know who Vitable is and I only watch ESPN when the Mets are playing but I f-ing hate Duke. Why? Because I know too many d-bag Duke fans with absolutly zero connection to the school and I don’t want to see them happy.
If I have to see one more “Go Dukies” facebook status from someone from NY who went to a SUNY school I’ll lose it.
Duke needs to win and then lose to MSU in the NC. it would be poetic.
It seems as though there has been quite a bit of “it’s not okay to root against this Duke team” from both ESPN (predictable) and Fox Sports commentators (Pat Forde’s pro-Butler column was a pleasant exception). I don’t know if it’s because of Duke’s relatively long absence from the Final Four, or Coach K, or whatever, but Keith Smooth has summarized my feelings on the matter possibly better than I ever could.
it so strange to me that theres so much duke antipathy out there. You’d think a bunch of athletically gifted, privileged, white players matriculating at an elite private institution of higher learning would automatically america’s sweethearts. just baffling.
I am a duke fan but I can see why people would hate duke. It’s just like the Yankees, since duke is a national draw, with a ton of fans, the networks like espn pay alot of attention to them, just like they do the Yankees. And just because you are sick if hearing the duke praise doesn’t mean it’s not deserved. They do play hard, they do play with class, and coach k is a great coach. There are other great teams and coaches but like I said, no one gives a shart about those teams, so espn isn’t going to cover it.
As for vitals, you duke hatred need to take you anti duke goggles off here. Vitals is a shill for whatever team is good at the time. Duke happens to be good alot, but in what were “down years” for duke the past few years, vitals was basically a shill for UNC. I think he would have blown Tyler hansborough and Ty lawson if he had the chance. This year he’s back to duke because they are in the f4, but I’d hardly call vitals a duke lover. He’s a lover of taking about whatever team will get his mug on camera.