Duke, and Other March Villains

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 18, 2009 3:00 PM CDT
Duke, and Other March Villains
Don't worry, Coach K, you and your Blue Devils always top this list.   (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Along with the obligatory madness, March always brings along a slew of detestable teams and characters. This year, thankfully, Billy Packer is gone, but Josh Levin, writing for Slate, still has plenty to disparage. The list starts, as always, with:

  • Duke: This isn’t the most deplorable squad ever, but Coach K’s “basketball as leadership seminar” style always evokes a bit of vitriol.
  • Jim Calhoun: The Connecticut coach’s “classlessness and self-aggrandizing bring shame to a shameless profession.”

  • North Dakota State: What’s wrong with the plucky Bison? Well, they cynically redshirted all their freshmen back in 2004. Hoosiers? More like Van Wilder.
  • Eric Devendorf: He punched a woman and “harmed” another student, and Syracuse suspended him for a whopping two games. Now he plays “with the joylessness and hostility of a schoolyard bully.”
  • Jay Bilas: “Billy Packer would be proud.”
(More college basketball stories.)

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