Tag Archives: Sports Illustrated

Krzyzewski, Summitt honored as SI Sportsman, Sportswoman of the year

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Duke head men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski and Tennessee head women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt have been named the Sports Illustrated co-Sportsman of the Year, the magazine announced today.

Summitt owns the Division I basketball all-time coaching wins record with 1,075 in her 38 seasons with the Lady Volunteers. Krzyzewski’s 907 career victories rank him atop all Division I men’s basketball coaches, with five more than his former coach at Army, Bob Knight.

“No matter how good you are, you’re never better than the game,” Krzyzewski told the Dan Patrick Show. “It’s such an amazing honor.”

“Obviously, this is a tremendous honor,” Summitt said in a press release. “I am so privileged to share it with such a great coach in Mike Krzyzewski. During our careers, we have both been fortunate to work with so many talented student-athletes who were driven to excel both on and off the court.

“For me, this recognition is a direct reflection of the outstanding young women who have worn the orange and white Lady Vol jersey of the University of Tennessee; the coaching staffs I have worked with throughout my career and the supportive administration at UT.”

Krzyzewski and Summitt join UCLA’s John Wooden and North Carolina’s Dean Smith as the only college basketball coaches to have won the award. The two will be honored in Manhattan Tuesday night.

Schadenfreude: Outrageous Overreaction Edition

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In honor of tonight’s Duke-Carolina game in Chapel Hill, Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel wrote a column, touching on — among other things — the significance of the rivalry game in a trying season for UNC, Duke’s recent travails in the series, Harrison Barnes, etc., etc., etc. Boilerplate stuff.

But lodged right in the middle is this gem of a quote from Roy Williams:

“Our massage therapist told me, ‘You know, coach, what happened in Haiti is a catastrophe. What you’re having is a disappointment,” said Williams. “I told her that depends on what chair you’re sitting in. It does feel like a catastrophe to me, because it is my life.”

To clarify: Roy Williams is comparing losing a bunch of basketball games (after winning the national championship all of nine long months ago) to the earthquake in Haiti while he talks to his team’s massage therapist.

The irony scale is officially broken.

(This isn’t irony, just total detachment from reality. I feel like Alanis Morissette.)

Duke Earns More and More Praise

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CBS Broadcaster Dan Bonner may not have believed that the Blue Devils were the top team in the ACC at the beginning of the season, but after last night’s 74-53 Duke victory over the Clemson Tigers, he is a believer now.

“I didn’t think Duke was this good,” said Bonner. “To my mind I think Duke has demonstrated that they are a cut above everybody else in the ACC.”

Meanwhile, the Blue Devils have risen from seventh to fifth in both the AP and ESPN/USA Today Polls, currently sitting behind the four remaining unbeatens (Kansas, Texas, Kentucky and Purdue). Continue reading →

Duke Featured in Sports Illustrated’s “The Decade in Sports”

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With the decade winding down, Sports Illustrated’s “2000s: The Decade In Sports” is intended to be “your portal to our look back at all of it — the dominant athletes, greatest games, biggest stories, fiercest rivalries, stunning upsets, spectacular flops, most brilliant minds, record-breaking performances and more.”

Below is a list of the many appearances that Duke athletes, teams and coaches made on the review of the decade:

Top Franchises

Duke came in as the No. 22 overall program among teams in the four major professional sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB and the NHL) plus college football and men’s and women’s college basketball. The big elephant in the room, though: North Carolina came in at No. 10. Sports Illustrated lists the Blue Devils’ drawbacks as a program in the last 10 years:

Drawbacks: For most programs, one NCAA title and two Final Four appearances would be a tremendous decade. But Duke accomplished all that from 2000-03. Since 2004, Duke hasn’t advanced past the Sweet 16 despite being a top-two seed four times.

Top 10 Scandals

The Duke Lacrosse prosecutorial misconduct came in No. 4 on the list behind BALCO, the Mitchell Report/MLB’s 2003 Doping list and Michael Vick’s dogfighting ring. Durham County D.A. Mike Nifong, Sports Illustrated notes, became the first sitting D.A. in North Carolina history to be disbarred after having “obscured or ignored potentially exculpatory evidence”. The case caused a media frenzy: ”the bully pulpit was set for anyone who wanted to push a national conversation about race relations, socioeconomic stratification, sexual assault, town-gown relations or uber-macho sports culture.”

Best Quotes

Listed in “The Funny” section of the best quotes of the decade, this one wasn’t said by anyone in the Duke program, but it does have to do with head coach Mike Krzyzewski. The NBA’s Shaquille O’Neal, after being traded away from the Lakers in 2004, made fun of the idea that Krzyzewski might have replaced Phil Jackson as the coach the Los Angeles franchise.

“Phil [Jackson] took us to the Finals [four] out of the five years, and you want to fire him and bring in Mike Krzyzewski? Come on, man. That’s like being married to J-Lo, then dropping J-Lo for a girl that’s 5-10, 480 pounds.”
– Shaquille O’Neal, Heat center, on his former team the Lakers’ pursuit of the Duke coach in 2004.

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Seth Davis: Social Networking Decade’s Worst Innovation

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Photo illustration by Lawson Kurtz and Michael Naclerio

In a piece for Sports Illustrated, college basketball analyst and former Chronicle writer Seth Davis called social networking the “worst innovation” of the decade for college hoops:

WORST INNOVATION: Social networking
Remember the sickening feeling you had when you handed your kid the keys to the car for the first time? That’s how parents and coaches should feel whenever their son/player sits in front of a computer. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter et al. give youngsters a high-profile, unfettered forum to air controversial views, confess to immature behavior and reveal their unsightly spelling and grammar skills. Players also use the sites (and video sites like ustream) to manipulate the recruiting process and maximize attention. Moreover, the networking sites (along with the advent of text messaging) introduce potential for NCAA violations as well as legal-but-non-kosher avenues for agents to approach prospective clients. Is it too late to go back to the dark ages of snail mail and landline phones?

On the one hand, this analysis is a bit ironic since Davis himself tweets. The analyst (@SethDavisHoops) has more than 5,000 followers and has updated his account more than 500 times since he joined May 5.

But even if Davis lamets the increased role that Twitter and other social media may have in the college basketball landscape, even he admits that it’s pretty effective. Speaking to The Chronicle last month, Davis seemed to be divided on the issue because he first admitted that he wouldn’t allow his players to have accounts on the site if he were a coach, but he went on to  note how effective its use has been for Kentucky head coach John Calipari:

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Experts Split On Duke-Villanova Predictions

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Earlier today, we brought you The Chronicle’s prediction for tonight’s Sweet 16 game between Duke and Villanova. And although our call is certain to be right—or at least Tim Britton’s will be, whenever he gets hooked up to the Internet in Boston to provide us with his sage wisdom—we’re more than willing to offer a few more predictions from around the Web.

For those gambling addicts, you already know the only prediction that matters: Duke’s a 2-point favorite in Vegas.

Sports Illustrated’s Andy Staples:

If the teams didn’t wear different shades of blue, the players might get confused. The squads are incredibly similar. Neither has a dominant post player. Both have sweet shooters who can play either guard position (Duke’s Jon Scheyer and Nova’s Scottie Reynolds). Both have long, complete players who can play inside and out (Duke’s Kyle Singler and Nova’s Dante Cunningham). Nova’s ferocious defense might be the difference.Villanova 72-70.

CBS Sportsline:

Texas had the right game plan to take down Duke, it just didn’t have the shooters. Villanova has the shooters. Look for Scottie Reynolds to attack the Blue Devils defense to get to the foul line or kick it out to open teammates who aren’t shy about hoisting it up from 3-point land. Duke won’t be as undermanned down low as they were against Texas, but Villanova’s Dante Cunningham will present a challenge. Duke is hitting 47 percent from 3-point range through the first two rounds and likely can’t afford to go cold against the Wildcats.

(Raleigh) News & Observer’s J.P. Giglio:

Nova looks at Duke and Duke looks at Nova and they should each see the same things—a guard-heavy lineup that plays physical defense, although in Nova’s case, it defends more of the court.

There’s no doubt playing at home helped Nova in the first round, a game they likely would have lost at another location. They responded with a strong win over UCLA in Round 2, though.

Duke stayed in its home state, but it had no such advantage in Greensboro. The Blue Devils out-lasted Texas in Round 2 and did so with 73 percent of its offense from its (I hate to use the overused moniker but) “Big Three” of Kyle Singler, Gerald Henderson and John Scheyer.

Whatever talent advantage Nova has is offset by Duke’s coaching advantage. That means it comes down to perimeter shooting (again) for Duke. If they can get into a halfcourt set—i.e. break Nova’s halfcourt and three-quarter traps—they’ll likely find the shots to win.

If Nova disrupts Scheyer and makes Duke the “Big Two,” the Cats will advance. I think Scheyer is up to the task. Pick: Duke.