Duke Against The World

A month ago, I can still remember when I was picking the teams for my NCAA March Madness bracket. I have not done it before and I have no clue on how good more than half the league was. I can still remember Ted Mosby and Marshall Eriksen of How I Met Your Mother failing terribly in their March Madness brackets despite of hours of research. The same goes to Bill Simmons as he has failed miserably last year.

Am I going to make my bracket for the sake of doing it?

Yes, I made my bracket. In less than ten minutes, I was able to pick my teams. Screw researching for it as I barely have time for that. I am such a newbie that I did not even know that there is information about each team if I click on them. I just picked out of my gut feel and familiarity of teams. I know that Kansas is a great team and Kentucky has John Wall. I am also aware of good basketball programs like Wake Forest, Syracuse, Georgetown and Louisville. Playing College Slam more than a decade ago has its perks after all. And of course, I know that my favorite NCAA team – the Duke Blue Devils – is quite a good team this year after they became the best of ACC. I picked using this knowledge and I guessed some upsets along the way. I played conservatively and chose the #1 or #2 seeds as part of my Final Four. I had Kansas, Kentucky, Kansas State (I was skeptical of this because I don’t see two Kansas teams battling it out but I do not like Syracuse’s chances so I did it anyway) and of course, Duke. Logic is part of picking (you don’t pick a 16th seed to beat the 1st seed) but fantarding was also part of it. I picked Duke to win it all because I trust them (even if I knew that they were upset by weaker teams like NC State during their ACC season).

After I picked the teams, I checked some of the brackets of famous people. I learned that analysts were usually bashing Duke for getting the #1 spot. According to them, Duke did not deserve it and should just be a #2 seed. Listening to Bill Simmons’ podcast was no help at all as he is a huge Duke hater. But since Duke has the #1 seed, I said to myself “Eff their (the sports writers’) analyses. If there is a time to gamble on Duke, it’s now. They did not have that luxury last year. This year, they are the best ACC team. After all, this is for fun.”

The rest was history. We all know who had the last laugh. Duke won the national championship and just like I blogged some weeks ago: picking the NCAA winner is like lottery. You don’t need to overthink it. I succeeded in my goal of beating President Obama’s and Bill Simmons’ brackets.

Funny how things unfold. Last weekend, I was ranting on how devastating Didi Benami’s American Idol elimination was. After a few days, I am on cloud 9 after I got to watch Duke win a nail-biter of a game. First favorite team to become a champion this decade for me. No matter how many championships of my favorite teams I have witnessed (i.e., Ateneo Blue Eagles ’02 ’08 ‘09, Atlanta Braves ‘95, Purefoods in the ‘90s, Boston Red Sox ’04 and ’07), it never gets tiring to see your favorite team rise on top. Other than bitter losses in the past that make me crave for the championship more, I also know how largely improbable it is that my favorite teams succeed as there are too many competitors in the playing field (except in UAAP where there are only eight teams). Duke winning today pretty much epitomizes the point of the highly improbable. Out of 64 NCAA teams (heck, last year’s champion – UNC Tar Heels – are not even qualified this year), what are the chances that your chosen team wins? Probably, that is why I never had a favorite NBA team win a championship (Lakers were my semi-favorites back in the Shaq-Kobe years so they don’t count). This is also the reason why Bill Simmons was able to write a column of Stomach Punch Level 1 Teams (these are franchises which never tasted a championship for more than forty years and yet were still in contention for a lot of times). Even the Yankees – the winningest sports franchise of all time – suffered for nine years of title drought. This is why you have to savor the moment when your favorite team ends up as champions.

You may ask: Of all the teams, why Duke? That team is America’s most hated team. The game commentators never fail to mention a hint of Duke hatred during games. From fans hating the alleged referee bias on Duke to the fact that the Blue Devils were tagged as Goliath against Butler’s David. Duke’s mascot also does not help the case because why the eff would I root for a devil?

But I still chose Duke as my favorite team (OK, I admit it was just on recent years. Go ahead and accuse me of jumping in the bandwagon but I was heavily rooting for Duke when they never won a game against the Tar Heels last year). The initial and most obvious reason would have to be the team color. I was fond of Duke’s blue and white as even back in my College Slam playing days (back when Super Famicom was still a good console). It further reinforced things when I became an Atenean. These are trivial and stupid reasons but a lot of fans rarely start with logical reasons upon rooting for a team anyway. Fans usually just like the feel of the team.

It was just in recent years when I actually had logical reasons for rooting for Duke. Ironically, I learned these reasons just in time when I got to know why people hated them so much. Duke is hated for various reasons. For starters, they are probably the most elite among all the strong basketball programs. Duke ranked 14th in the 2009 THES-QS World University Rankings. The other thirteen universities were never known to be basketball powerhouses. Since Duke has been one of the most successful basketball programs in the recent decades (4 NCAA Championships and 11 Final Four appearances), it is easy to hate on them. We all know that most people love underdogs. Coach K, despite leading the Redeem Team to capture the gold in the ’08 Olympics, is one of the most vilified coaches for odd reasons. Duke gets too many media attention and there has been an alleged referee bias on them. Duke is also a private institution so it is easier to hate on them than the state universities (a state would get pissed if their university is hated by the rest of America). Duke also has too many white boys on the team. We all know Americans hate white boys in basketball teams. All these plus more insane hater excuses make up all the Duke hatred. But mostly, I think Duke is hated for its success. You do not see a lousy team getting hated.

However for the very same reasons, I learned to like Duke. After all, it has several similarities with my Alma Mater (aside from the similar school colors). Other than La Salle, Ateneo is probably the most hated university in the Philippines. This is because both schools happen to be elite private institutions where the rich and intelligent kids go. Students of both universities are also generalized as people who ‘think they are better than the rest’ or what is more commonly known as ‘the holier than thou’ attitude. Of course, this is rooted from the fact that both Ateneo and La Salle have successful academics and sports programs. One may say that a stupid basketball trophy does not make an individual better. But I beg to disagree on that. Sports is a huge thing in college. In a fan-crazed country, we love to have the bragging rights by being the champion. It is trivial on the wider perspective but being a fan is not highly based on logic to begin with. Also, I am sure you would rather have nostalgic moments of triumph where you end up partying for weeks than being indifferent on how boring your school team is, right?

Ateneo’s aim to promote student athletes is also quite similar to Duke’s. Both institutions take pride of its athletic graduation rate. Coach K might be hated but you have to respect the guy for making sure that his athletes pass the rigid requirements of the school. Just like the latter, Ateneo is one of the most popular universities in the country. The media loves us for better or worse. Remove Ateneo or La Salle from UAAP and the sponsors will significantly lessen. Also, Ateneo and Duke happen to have the fewest number of undergraduates in their respective leagues.

If you actually compare Duke’s team this year to that of Ateneo’s, you will see a lot of similarities as well. From the hard-nosed defense to team play. Amidst the general perspective that students of these schools produce arrogant students, the basketball team players are actually good sportsmen if you observe closely. Sure they are rugged (which is part of the game) but they do not overtaunt their opponents. OK, last year’s Blue Eagles were quite cocky but if you see the menacing kind of cocky Green Archers of the early 2000’s, last year’s Ateneo team suddenly become a bunch of angels. Yup, even Eric Salamat. He may trash talk players but do you see him saluting to taunt the opposing crowd? There is a big difference from swagger and childish mocking.

Through the years, I have experienced Ateneo hate from people. From the logical type of hate to the jealous/envious kind of hate. This is why it was easy for me to understand Duke’s situation. Their team pretty much suffers the same thing. You have sports analysts branding Duke as a hated school. You have UAAP teams develop a special chant against Ateneo (“Beat Ateneo. Animo !”) Ateneo became a trending Twitter topic after they lost their first regular season game to UP last year. People celebrate when we fail. There is just too much hate on Duke and Ateneo. Whatever. The hatred just fuels both the school teams to do better. The hatred just makes us feel special. Am I starting to sound elitist? Probably, but you would be a biased hater if you think so. After all, these are facts and we have results to back it up. Duke won amidst the fact that people hated them this year. Ateneo swept the rest of the regular season and won the championship after the anti-Ateneo fans gloated after the UP game.

This is not a popular opinion but to be frank, the only hate-able thing on Duke and Ateneo would be the alleged ‘holier than thou’ attitude. It is hard to defend but it also happens to get generalized too much. After all, there will always be a bunch of people gloating and bragging when they win. But other than which, when is succeeding in both academics and in sports bad? Shouldn’t student athletes be what schools should promote? Even the type of game play that Ateneo and Duke employ in their basketball game is very inspiring. Why? Because it promotes team play, defense and sportsmanship. Old school. It might appear boring to the casual basketball fans but these old school ways are the tried and tested formula of success. As regards to underdogs, I am suddenly thinking that being an underdog is starting to be overrated. Everyone loves underdogs while the ‘favorites to win’ bust their asses day in and day out for perfection and just receive hate. I am of the minority in here who thinks that rooting for the underdog has become too cliché. Fans have been blinded with the oppressed image of underdogs to the point that they do not appreciate the pursuit for excellence of the overdogs. You root for a team because of their body of work, their ideals and what they stand for. Hating on success is just pure jealousy and envy – a mark of a loser.

This is why I do not mind if the team I root for is the most hated. Yes, Duke was against the world when they battled the hungry and competent Butler Bulldogs. ESPN’s Pat Forde even gave reasons on his likability index why Duke should not be liked. (Duke might be a media darling but it is also media’s punching bag.) People have painted Duke’s image as black as they want it to be but there actually lies the other side of the story – Duke’s story – which is about being an inspiration of success.

Why do I root for Duke? I root for success.

As for the haters? It’s OK. It’s the nature of fans to hate anyway. It won’t be as fun if you don’t hate on something in sports, right? But if you hate Duke for the reasons I stated, then I guess you are hating for the wrong reasons.

By the way, congratulations to the Butler Bulldogs for putting up a fight. Man, that was a classic match! Butler proved they belong as they challenged Duke with all their might. It even went to the point that I did not care if Duke wins or loses. Both teams deserved to win it. Duke had the breaks of the game at the end. Congratulations to the Duke University Blue Devils for winning the 2010 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship.

I will end this NCAA chapter with my March Madness bracket results. Oh yes, I can!