In what was, frankly, a relatively lackluster game, Duke defeated Wisconsin 68-63 to win this year’s NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Tournament.
With this national championship, their fifth since 1991, the Duke Blue Devils have officially become to NCAA Basketball what the New York Yankees are to MLB Baseball: the team we love to hate.
Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Badgers haven’t won a national championship since … 1941. Therefore, one can understand why their players felt they had a rendezvous with destiny this year.
Perhaps this explains why, when a reporter asked them to choose one or two words they would want their tournament opponents to use to describe them, they replied as follows:
‘Resilient’ and ‘disciplined,’ replied two of the players. ‘Unselfish’ and ‘tough,’ answered two others.
Then came Kaminsky. ‘White guys,’ he deadpanned.
(USA Today, April 3, 2015)
That, of course, is Frank Kaminsky, their star, seven-foot center.
I wanted Wisconsin to win. I must confess, however, that I derive some consolation from being spared taunts by my White friends about a Wisconsin team of mostly White guys schooling a Duke team of mostly Black guys in Basketball.
I should clarify that Kaminsky was engaging in the kind of politically incorrect trash talk that is generally recognized and accepted in Basketball. Indeed, this was the perversely collegial spirit with which (Black) Andrew Harrison muttered in frustration at (White) Kaminsky, “Fu*k that nigga,” during a press conference—after Wisconsin schooled his Kentucky Wildcats in their Final Four game. No harm intended, no foul given—as Kaminsky himself duly declared..
Accordingly, in this same collegial, trash-talking spirit, I hereby note that, in addition to schooling those Wisconsin White guys on the court, Duke’s Black guys could probably school them in the classroom too. Ouch!
On the other hand, it’s simply classless for U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill to be leading Wisconsin fans in complaining about Duke emulating the one-and-done system Kentucky popularized:
Congrats to Duke, but I was rooting for team who had stars that are actually going to college & not just doing semester tryout for NBA.
(Twitter, April 6, 2015)
In fact, I detected racist indignation in the way Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan squeezed sour grapes all over Duke’s victory by whining that he doesn’t play that “rent a player” scheme.
I, of course, am on record decrying big-time Division 1 sports (like Basketball and Football) as a form of indentured servitude. This is why I was in the vanguard of those calling either for the NCAA to compensate players or for the NBA to allow them to be recruited right out of high school … you know, the way the Army recruits them.
Anyway, congratulations Duke!
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Badgers stun Wildcats…