Miracle
UPDATE 19-Feb-2005, 0105 EST: One of the pleasant surprises of 67-65’s aftermath was the way Duke handled the loss. From Coach K on down, through the players to the media (mainstream and Net) and the fans, their reaction was uniformly classy and respectful of this Hokie team. Jordan Kos, the beat writer for Duke’s student newspaper The Chronicle, compared Cassell to Cameron Indoor in fan support and atmosphere, which is high praise indeed.
The funny thing is, if they’d handled themselves similarly during and after their 100-65 win 3 Sundays ago, they probably wouldn’t have lost this one. Tech fans online were outraged over perceived bias in refereeing (perceptions backed up by fans of nearly every other ACC team, plus those of Syracuse, Pitt, UConn and Kentucky), but entirely within Duke’s control was the way the game ended. Krzyzewski could have called off the dogs at any point starting midway through the second half, with his team up by 25 and most of VT’s starters in deep foul trouble. Instead, he continued riding the refs, the Crazies chanted “PLEASE STOP FOULING” at a Hokie team that got called for breathing hard, and Duke’s starters stayed in until the final two minutes of the game. Close to the surface was Duke’s strong opposition, led by Krzyzewski, to the expansion that brought Tech into the conference; Hokies felt he was trying to rub his point in long after the refs had already driven it home.
With the notable exception of the quality folks at DBR, most of the treatment VT got from Duke before, during and after that match was disrespectful in the extreme. That made for motivation, both on the floor and in the Cassell stands. Duke planted the seeds of its own demise that Sunday night, and the Hokies nurtured them to fruitfulness on Thursday.
18 February 2005 / 2 Comments / Tags: basketball