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751 55 Carmel Rd N For dha m Blv d SEE FANAROFF ON PAGE 19 Brian Zoubek has only recently become a key contributor to Duke’s unique team. DURHAM • Resort-style swimming pool • Tennis courts • Walking trails • Car care center • Movie theater • Barbecue grills and picnic areas • Business Center • FREE Cable RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK D U D U D U D U U K U K U K U K U U U U K K K K K K K K U U U K K K K E K E K E D U D U K U K E K E K E K E E E K E D IS C O U N T 1 2 3 4 MORRISVILLE
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DUKE IN THE FINAL FOURTHE CHRONICLE FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 2010 | 7
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JORDAN LAKE
MORRISVILLE
KEENE
BETHESDIA
DUKEUNIVERSITY
OAK GROVE
RESEARCHTRIANGLE
PARK
Durham
Chap
el Hill
Blvd
Hop
e Va
lley
Rd
S For
dham
Blvd
Mt
Car
mel
Rd
N F
ordh
am B
lvd
N R
oxbo
ro S
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N A
lsto
n Av
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Wake Forest Rd
S Miam
i Blvd
New Raleigh
Durham Expy
75155
147
70
15
147
70
55
751
5454
DURHAM
85
40
40
540
*All prices, amenities and specials are subject to change without notice. Potential resident must provide proof of employment for eligibility.
• Resort-style swimming pool • Tennis courts• Walking trails • Car care center • Movie theater
• Barbecue grills and picnic areas • Business Center• FREE Cable
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If you’re a real American, root for the Blue Devils
MICHAEL NACLERIO/THE CHRONICLE
Brian Zoubek has only recently become a key contributor to Duke’s unique team.
AlexFanaroff
In the national media’s (grossly oversimplified) Final Four narrative, every team has a storyline. Butler is the home-coming Cinderella; Michigan State’s Tom Izzo is the greatest Tournament coach of this or any generation; West Virginia’s Bob Huggins is the local boy returned home and made good. Duke, of course, is the big bad villain.
While grossly oversimplified story lines are fun, sometimes
they can be a little, um, oversim-plifying. Back when Christian Laettner went to four Final
Fours in four years, stomping on a chest or two along the way, Duke might have been a villain. But that was 18 years ago. When Laettner hit The Shot to beat Kentucky, Andre Dawkins was six months old. The world has changed a lot since then. Col-lege basketball has changed a lot since then.
There are plenty of good reasons to root for Duke. For anyone that loves the sport of college basketball, there isn’t a better team for which to cheer
in Indianapolis. So now, since it wouldn’t be a Final Four column without a gimmick involving the number four, I present the top four reasons why any college basketball fan should be rooting for Duke in the Final Four.
1. These guys are in school to learn. It probably says more about the state of the sport than it does about Duke’s likeability, but there isn’t a one-and-done to be found on Duke’s roster. Instead, among the players in Duke’s nine-man rotation, there are National Honor Society members, Math Olympians, class presidents, class salutatorians and National Merit Scholars. I may be old-fashioned, but that has to count for something.
2. Coach Mike Krzyzewski is literally an American hero. The game of basketball was invented in the United States. For dozens of years, the U.S. dominated international competitions. Then, the United States men’s basketball team lost two straight major international competitions involving NBA players. So who does USA Basketball call on to fix the program? Coach K.
Of course, Krzyzewski’s Re-deem Team won gold in Beijing. For a couple days, everyone was happy, then we forgot about it. But how was this not a bigger
deal? If this were England, Coach K would’ve been knighted. (Seri-ously, the last manager to guide England’s soccer team to a World Cup championship, Alf Ramsey, became Sir Alf Ramsey a short time later.) Instead, everyone continues to hate Coach K, and by extension, his Duke teams.
3. These guys appear to enjoy each other’s company. Whether it’s Lance Thomas designing personal-ized logos for each of the team’s seniors or the 27-part handshake that Dawkins and Nolan Smith manage to flawlessly execute prior to each game, you get the feeling that these Blue Devils are goofy, 20-something-year-old buddies who also happen to be some of the best basketball players in the coun-try. Other media accounts cor-roborate this: In a Dime Magazine feature, Smith, Kyle Singler and Jon Scheyer traded good-natured barbs regarding each other’s bowl-ing games, and Singler revealed Smith’s habit of parking his car re-ally close to his teammates’ cars so that they have to crawl in through the passenger side.
And then there’s Nolan Smith’s Twitter account, perhaps the best evidence of the team’s human side. Actual quote from the day of Duke’s regional final
SEE FANAROFF ON PAGE 19
