Seth Davis....The Classic Dookie

As you probably know by now, yesterday the man, the myth, the Dookie, Seth Davis made a point of calling out UK fans on our good friend Bomani Jones’s radio show. You can hear the clip again if you missed it down below, but the basic gist of it involved Davis being played a clip where I made fun of Duke fans for their lack of basketball knowledge and general overall dorkdom. Now of course such a criticism is perfectly valid, because as we learned in law school, truth is the ultimate defense. Duke fans can be loud, they paint themselves and they are most certainly sweaty….but as for knowledge of the game, they are profoundly lacking. (There are of course exceptions, but we speak in generalizations here). The reason is simple…..unlike Kentucky, Indiana, Kansas or even North Carolina fans, they didnt grow up with it. They discovered the joys of college basketball when they went to college and thus they dont have that gene that we do in which we know exactly what Kentucky did to LSU in 1990 at Rupp as Shaquille O Neal got a technical foul and the crowd went nuts. They are missing that trait and thus their fandom isnt the same.

But the ultimate Dookie, Seth Davis took offense to this characterization and said that Cat fans had an “inferiority complex” towards Duke. He went further to claim that this was not due to ESPN’s obsession with the team, the plethora of Duke alumni in the media or the overall obnoxious of the players who wear the uniform, but rather was because the Cat fans were “tired of getting beat so often by the Blue Devils.” And here is where Seth shows his inner Duke-dom. While he can get on television every weekend and act like he has a deep knowledge of the game, at its core he is still a “Johnny come lately” to the beauty of college sports. Like most Duke fans, he remembers only the last 20 years, and has a selective memory at that. So for Seth, losing the 1978 title to the Cats doesnt register….neither does the 1998 18 point comeback….or for that matter, Kentucky’s overall 11-8 record against the men from Durham. No, Seth assumes that Duke dominates Kentucky, because Duke fans assume they dominate everyone….no matter what the facts. Davis should be very careful making such assertions….he showed a few weeks back on CBS that he has no actual basketball ability (his attempt at a layup was beyond embarassing)….if he gets the facts wrong as well, what does he have?

But Davis doesnt stop there…..after going on and on with gibberish about how UNC and Duke fans “respect each other” and want both teams to succeed (at least as it pertains to UNC fans, this is gibberish….they would like most Duke fans and players to be deported), he finishes by saying that UK fans, and me in particular, secretly wish we were Duke. Now let me say this right now….I cannot think of a worse fate in humanity than being a Duke basketball fan. Yes I went to that institution for law school and I am a proud alumni of that school. And I have found myself occasionally cheering for Duke football, as its lousiness precludes the bandwagon fans that make Duke students so “passionate” according to Mike Patrick. But when I watch a game at Cameron and see all the rich, spoiled, obnoxious, unathletic, Northeastern freaks who paint their body and act like they are somehow cool, irreverant college basketball hipsters……I seriously want to round up a posse from my hometown of Middlesboro and go through them like a buzzsaw. I cant imagine a fate worse than to find myself in that group, dressed with such vulgar absurdity and to have to look at myself and have something resembling self-respect in the morning. Call me a Gator, call me a Vol, heck call me a Cardinal….but dont ever call me a Duke basketball fan.

Like Seth, I know that of which I speak. I went to virtually every basketball game at Cameron during my three years in Durham. I sat in the graduate section (the fans behind the basket) and cheered as Brendan Haywood hit two free throws to upset the group, Shane Battier lost on Senior Night to Maryland and Coach K was teed up by John Clougherty. On each of those occasions, I was the object of scorn by the largest mass of dorks outside of a Fake Gimel house party. But I never wavered in my Duke hate. There is no part of me, and I would venture to say no part of any True Blue Kentucky fan, that would wish to be a Dookie. Because unlike Seth and other average Duke fans, we know our basketball….we live it….we breathe it….and we understand it. And with that knowledge comes the understanding that no matter how many ACC defense-optional games they win….no matter how many times they are crowned college basketball royalty…..no matter how many times Mike Patrick and Dick Vitale tell us they are the gold standard….they are still Duke and we are still Kentucky.

7 championships are a lot more than 3….I would think a Duke education could teach you that Seth.

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