As casual college basketball fans turn their attention to the 2014-2015 season, they will see a familiar face near the front of the pack. In the gentle Southern winter, a blue juggernaut of impressive talent is getting ready for March.
Oh, and Kentucky is pretty good, too.
The calendar has flipped, new semesters have started, and Duke is one of the country's best teams, but the vibe this year is different. With the excitement, both real and manufactured, surrounding the Wildcats, this edition of Blue Devils has evaded notice as much the program reasonably can.
Before losing at NC State on Saturday, Duke opened the season with 14 wins and rose to No. 2 in the polls, including two wins against last year's Final Four. In a different year, compared to a different rival assemblage, this Duke team might hear whispers about its own collective greatness.
(Let me take a moment to apologize to the good people of Charlottesville, VA. Their Cavaliers remained unbeaten with an impressive win at Notre Dame Saturday. This hot start comes a year after Virginia won both the ACC Conference Tournament and the regular season title — outright by two games, I will add — on the way to a well-deserved No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. And yet, they will be overlooked in this comparison as a symptom of just how much traditional powers like Duke and Kentucky dominate college basketball.)
Of course, Duke's secondary position is not purely the product of poor timing. John Calipari gleefully (and smartly) allows his rotating parade of seasonal talent to represent Kentucky basketball. While the Wildcat roster violently turns over like a canoe in a hurricane, Calipari's annual act undeniably attracts talent and delivers loaded results.
While not diametrically opposed to this player-centered approach, Duke basketball identifies more heavily with its impossibly-dark-haired coach. While the Blue Devils certainly now embrace one-and-done talent, if begrudgingly, one never feels like the program is branded as a high-volume, short-occupancy stable.
Mike Krzyzewski's Duke is a unicorn in the current sports climate. Marriages of programs and individual coaches metamorpihize through increasingly rapid and inevitable lifecycles. Most never reach the hopeful expectations quietly whispered at inception, and those that do reach lofty heights often regress to a place of shame within the shadow of that past summit.
Krzyzewski's Duke, in contrast, has reached full maturity. The program displays a reliable consistency, both in performance and culture. Sure, now and then the Blue Devils have two digits in their ranking or slip surprisingly in the tournament's opening weekend, but the program finds its way back to top fives and Final Fours quickly enough. Beyond the court, we will be reminded of the players' academic load, the Cameron Crazies, and Krzyzewski's Team USA side gig. The concept of "Duke" is so clearly defined at this point that even the hottest-sports-taker looks to Durham and shrugs.
Everyone has an opinion of Duke, and they're all bored of it.
Think about how unique this circumstance is. Today, hundreds of college and professional sports teams have multiple devoted blogs in addition to traditional beat coverage, and the loudest and most hysterical voices set the agenda. For most coaches, a single blunder can push out dozens of other data points. Nearly every coach is threatened by the tyranny of the recent.
But not Krzyzewski. At this point, everything has been said.
Glowing character pieces and meta-industry philosophy pieces? It's been done.
Bullying officials and exuding smarm? Find a new angle.
This is at least partly why a squad from one of college basketball's most elite programs can blaze through its first two months, including those wins at Wisconsin and against defending-champ UConn, and barely gain mention. This is what we expect.
And yet, there should be enough sophistication within the sport for fans to consider storylines beyond the obvious, Kentucky's challenge to 1976 Indiana's legacy. As the Wildcats' narrow escape Saturday against Texas A&M shows, undefeated seasons are hard. There is so much more to this season than hoping for the narrow likelihood of total domination, and what if the Cats fall short of that lofty mark?
"Duke is Duke," as former Clemson coach Pete Gillen once said. But that doesn't mean this Duke is unworthy of our attention.
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