ACC Player Haterz Ball: Duke

Remember how you felt every time you were watching a Maryland road game over the past year and the fans started shouting "A-C-C! A-C-C!" in unison at the Terps? It's time for the Testudo Times crew to respond! Moving along alphabetically, it's the day you've all been waiting for, Duke day! So before we say good riddance to Coach K, the Cameron Crazies and the rest of the Dookies, let's let the hate flow one final time.

Player we couldn't help but like

FlaTerp: You know, when a kid dons the Duke laundry, that pretty much guarantees I'm not going to like him. I'll reluctantly signal out Jay Williams as a guy that I disliked a little less than the rest of ‘em. Tough, clutch guard who might have made a great NBA player if not for a horrible motorcycle accident. Also, like fellow dookie Jay Bilas, he's turned into a good, fair basketball analyst.

Andrew: Elton Brand. If you haven't read it, read it now.

Dave: J.J....bahahaha, I couldn't even finish that sentence without laughing. But seriously, Ryan Kelly comes to mind. The guy was good and people loved to hate on him, but he was really that fourth year senior guy who worked hard all four years. It's something you see less and less of in college basketball.

Brendan: Okay, don't hate me guys, but I actually grew to like J.J. Redick. He played the wrestling-style heel perfectly, and I could appreciate that. Once he got to the NBA, well, I love him now. #SorryNotSorry

Pete: It's a recent cop out, but I have to go with Jabari Parker. When the dude was on, he was impossibly fun to watch, and I'm extremely excited to see him take his game to the next level.

Todd: Mistie Williams, Wanisha Smith, Alison Bales, Lindsey Harding, Monique Currie, Abby Waner, Chante Black, and Jessica Foley. The eight players who choked away the game to remember.

Grant: Kyrie Irving but he doesn't even really count. He only played 11 games in Durham. He is just a smooth player to watch in the league, his face mask is awesome too and OH LAWD I can't wait to see him play with Andrew Wiggins. Andrew, very insightful though, Eltron Brand is now just a shade below Kyrie to me.

Player we loved to hate:

FlaTerp: How do you pick just one? For an older guy like me, I guess it has to be Laettner. But man, I feel awful for leaving out Battier here ... I mean I really, really hated that guy. Still do. Anyway, Laettner was a slow, white, whiny, entitled prima donna who couldn't hack it in the league. In other words, he was just like every other Duke star in the last 30 years.

Andrew: As a younger Maryland fan, and with so many options, I feel like I have to pick a guy I actually watched play, so I'll go with Kyle Singler. If you were creating the quintessential Duke basketball player, it would be Kyle Singler. Tall, gangly white dude that could shoot, flopper extraordinaire and ugly as all get out.

Here we see Singler in his natural habitat -- getting out-rebounded by Haukur Palsson. Image by Mark Dolejs, USA Today.

Dave: Just in terms of Duke players I hated while I was at Maryland, I could go from Mike Dunleavy to J.J. Redick. I think it has to be Reddick for me, though. It wasn't just that he was good and torched Maryland during his career at Duke, it was that he was a complete and utter jackass on the court. And who could forget his poetry?

You are cut from this, Brendan after your JJ comments. KThxBye.

Pete: I have to choose Reddick, as well, and in the ultimate expression of Dooky-ness, he could have easily been my answer in the first question as well. Sure, I hated his arrogance and just how dang good he was, but I couldn't help but like just how dang good he was. There haven't been many scorers of his caliber in basketball history, and watching a one-tool player simply dominate is fascinating.

Todd: For me, Christian Laettner. Christian? Really? Or could it be

Brendan: Here's my starting five of hate -- PG - Greg Paulus, SG - Jon Scheyer, SF - Gerald Henderson, PF - Carlos Boozer, C - Brian Zoubek. I hated Zoubek, he was god awful and seemed to love only playing against Maryland. What a terrible player. The rest seem pretty obvious though.

FlaTerp: OK now I'm getting worried. Is nobody going to pick Battier? Really? I might have to add a 2nd round of players to hate just so he gets his. Yeah, let's do it:

FlaTerp: Shane Battier!!!! The dude has made a career or running around the court seeking out spots to plant himself in front of driving players, cover his junk, and intentionally force violent collisions. It should've been made illegal 20 years ago, but announcers talk about it like its some kind of gift. Also, at Duke he made Dick Vitale giddy even by Dick Vitale standards. Heck, maybe we should make Dickie V an honorary Dookie and add him to this list? Scheyer anyone? Hurley? Paulus? Surely, we're not done yet.

Grant: There was something about Chris Duhon that just made me want to punch myself in the face. He really bothered me. Also, Shelden Williams is high on the list. He was just outright ugly and it pains me that he is married to Candace Parker.

John Johnson: (ok ok, it's actually FlaTerp again.) Bobby Hurley. Hated him. Pest of a guard who got away with murder on the court thanks to Duke-loving, corrupt ACC officials like Lenny Wirtz and Dick Paparo (can we have a Dick Paparo Haterz Ball Day? He was the worst). Vitale worshipped Hurley and would practically start crying tears of delight into his microphone if the guy so much as made a layup.

Game to remember:

FlaTerp: Every win over Duke is precious. I'm going to take the "Lefty's Revenge" game, the 1984 ACC championship game in which Len Bias scored 26 points in a comfortable 12-point win that allowed the Maryland band to belt out an extended "Amen Chorus" while the teams were still playing out the final minute. Bring it back!

Andrew: My first home Duke game as a student: March 13rd, 2010, Greivis Vasquez's Senior Night. It was perfect. The crowd was as electric as I've ever seen at a sporting event and the game was played at an incredibly high level the entire 40 minutes. Back and forth, back and forth, until Greivis sealed it with The Shot. What elevates that game above the win my senior year is that the game in 2010 actually meant something. It elevated the Terps from an upper-echelon ACC team to the eventual (co) conference champion.

Dave: Being at that ACC Championship game in 2004 with Maryland's Pep Band, beating Duke in overtime, was my favorite win over the Blue Devils. It was just so great, to be in Greensboro, beating Duke, who had won five ACCT in a row, with a team that no one expected to be there on Sunday. It was glorious.

Todd: And can I add that it gave us this:

Brendan: I don't want to copy Andrew, but I'm going to copy Andrew. The 2010 Greivis Senior Night game was one of the best games I've ever been in the building for. The fact it sealed a conference co-championship and cemented Greivis' legacy in College Park was all the sweeter.

Pete: I too was at that 2010 Greivis Senior Night game, and I too have to pick it. It was the first (and only) time I've ever rushed a court, and I even got to high-five Eric Hayes in the process.

Todd: Really, guys? Does April 4, 2006 ring a bell with anybody? Maryland 78, Duke 75 OT. The one that gave us a late 13-point comeback, Kristi Toliver's miracle 3 to force overtime, and the Terps' first ever NCAA women's title.

Grant: Let's go with the flash mob game last season. Storming the court is always noteworthy but this one was special. Quinn Cook yelled "this is my city" in the Comcast Center and then Seth Allen (the artist formerly known as a Maryland player) mopped the floor with his tears after he sealed the deal with some free throws.

Game to forget:

FlaTerp: Someone has to say it first: Gone in 60 seconds. I'll save the gory details for someone else.

Andrew: The last one. I still can't shake the image of Charles Mitchell's shot hitting every part of the rim but the bottom. An absolute gut-punch. I'm convinced the season would have finished much differently had that shot fallen.

Dave: For me, the game to forget is a game I still to this day haven't been able to watch - the collapse in the Final Four against Duke in 2001. I was a senior in high school and we had our school's musical that night and taped the game. At intermission, our band director, who was in the balcony listening to the game on radio, gave us the thumbs up that all was well. However, as the performance ended, we saw him go storming out of the auditorium and rumblings spread of what had happened. I believe I punched a wall, screamed a curse word, and could never bring myself to watch.

Brendan: 2009. 85-44. I don't even want to talk about it, but you know how bad it was. If you don't, just look at that effing score.

Pete: I know there are some more hip, older games to choose, but I'm going to agree with Andrew here again. I wanted nothing more than for Maryland to beat Duke one last time, as a goodbye gift before heading out of this conference, but the gods had other ideas.

Todd: March 1, 1980 Duke 73, Maryland 72 Mike Gminski undercuts Buck Williams and Duke wins the ACC Tournament.

Grant: Easily the collapse of Maryland in the final minute of the game. C'mon boys.

Bonus Coach K section:

FlaTerp: Since Coach K is neither a player nor a game, it was clear we needed to break form and devote a special section just to him. It wouldn't have been fair to ignore him. I'll get started with a recap of his last round of media, which happened during the end of the ACC Tournament and the start of the NCAA Tournament:

Saturday: Duke beats middling N.C. State in the ACC semifinals, then Coach K delivers a self-righteous and typically nasal speech about how awesome the ACC is and how N.C. State is a great team that belongs in the tourney, even though the ‘Pack finished in a 3-way tie with Maryland and FSU, who weren't going to get in, and had the worst RPI of the three.

Sunday: N.C. State inexplicably gets into the tourney.

Thursday: N.C. State is ousted in the first round.

Friday: Duke is beaten in wire-to-wire fashion by No. 14-seed Mercer, an unknown, off-radar small-conference school from basketball hotbed Macon, Ga. In an interview postgame, Coach K claims Mercer to be a "championship team" saying it was "beautiful" to watch such a great veteran team thrive in the spotlight.

Sunday: Mercer's beautiful championship run ends with a 20-point loss to Tennessee. Sorry, Coach K. Also, with the exception of Virginia, the entire ACC is quickly dispatched from the tourney. Sorry again.

The following week: Coach K delivers a whiny interview about how everyone in the ACC should feel guilty because he was out there on a ledge by himself defending the conference but nobody had his back. Hmmm ... maybe nobody had his back because HE HAD HIS FOOT IN HIS MOUTH ON ALL COUNTS.

Andrew: I get it. Coach K is one of the great coaches in American sports history. He's won titles, gold medals, all that. Whatever. The man is a self-righteous, Holier-Than-Thou weasle of a human. At least a guy like Jim Boeheim knows he's an asshole. And his quotes about Maryland leaving the ACC? Give me a break. I won't link them or write them here because they don't deserve that. Just do me a favor coach and keep our name and our school out of your mouth, okay? I never want to play them again. Not in the ACC/B1G challenge. Not in the NCAA tournament. Never. I don't give a crap about you, your team, your fans or that rivalry anymore.

Go. Away. Image via Mark Dolejs, USA Today.

Dave: Coach K is probably one of the greatest coaches ever. I had a lot more respect for him when he was standing up for Gary Williams. But I lost a lot of respect when he decided to turn every speaking engagement into a shot at Maryland for leaving for the Big Ten. Does he realize the money that drives his huge salary and endorsement deals is the same one forcing Maryland to the B1G? In essence, Maryland leaving for the B1G is no different than one of his players leaving for the NBA instead of returning to school. If they stayed, they'd be making a huge financial mistake. And if the rivalry with Maryland is so important and historical, as K suggests, why didn't he fight more to preserve the rivalry with Duke when the ACC was assigning primary rivals? Why not have an uproar when the ACC assigned Pitt as the Terps' rival? And if that game is so important, why not schedule Maryland out of conference each year?

Brendan: Coach K comes from the Bobby Knight coaching tree. He's a hardass, but his players respect him. That doesn't mean any of us do. I enjoy watching Coach K going out early in the tournament even more than I do seeing Georgetown go out early (Looking at you, Florida Gulf Coast).

Todd: Well, it seems to me that Joanne P. McCallie has taken whining lessons at the master's feet.

Grant: The poll below basically tells the whole story. Coach K is a remarkable coach but I hate him for quite a few reasons. He always finds the best white players to suit up for Duke. He always has the officials in his pocket. He looks like a rat. Dick Vitale is obsessed with his success. He said he has no respect for Maryland, which means (reading between the lines of course) he is scared of Maryland to no end.

Parting Shots

Brendan: Cameron Indoor is an awesome experience. That said, it's also a really strange place. It's basically a cult of awkwardness.

Andrew: Hey Brendan, CIS is stupid. It's not in my top 5 places I want to see a college basketball game. I'd put Rupp, Phog Allen, Hilton, Paulie, Hinkle, Assembly Hall, Carrier Dome and the Palestra above it, just off the top of my head. It's a small, cramped old building filled with faux-Southern, painted elitists. Count me out.

FlaTerp: You forgot "dorks" Andrew. Faux-Southern, painted elitist dorks. Otherwise we're on the same page. Also, I'm not convinced anyone in that building knows a damn thing about basketball. They just share a passion for wearing costumes and doing weird ritual dances. Like the villains in True Detective.

Andrew: They're definitely the basketball fans that know the least about...actual basketball. I bet the average CIS patron couldn't name a single player in the PAC 12.

Pete: I can add nothing to this conversation that hasn't already been expressed. My favorite part of this conference move may be never having to deal with Duke's obsessive, hatred-filled basketball fan base ever again. We won't miss you.