Posted: Wednesday, March 25, 2009, 5:48 PM | 16 comments |
 

Plucking and Coach K
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It's an often-told story, about how the great Gerald Henderson, late of Episcopal Academy, chose Duke over Villanova. Here is coach Mike Krzyzewski's side of it. He was asked how he "plucked" Henderson out of Philadelphia, and Coach K offered just a hint of superiority in his reply.

"Because we're a national school, our school plucks good people in different parts of the country," he said. "It's what a national school does. Harvard does it in this area, Stanford. You're talking about -- Duke is one of the great schools.

"When I saw Gerald play, even before his junior year, I knew he would be -- he had a chance to be a great player. I'm not sure he knew it as much. I think he will tell you that sometimes the vision we have for it is maybe not the vision at that time he had for himself.

"I think if it wasn't for the broken bone in his wrist in mid-February of last year, you would have seen even more of that at the end of last year. But he was out for four months. He had surgery right after the season last year, didn't play for four months. I thought he started playing really well here right after Christmas. And it took, I think, that long for him to get back and accustomed to it.

"He and I have a great relationship. I know he loved Villanova. His sister is a graduate and it's a great school, too. But sometimes it's a great relationship you might have, while you still also have a great school. I guess that's how the pluck occurred, the anatomy of a pluck"

Read that again, and again, and it isn't hard to understand  why Duke haters are not an exclusive group.
Posted by Rich Hofmann @ 5:48 PM  Permalink | 16 comments
16
Comments   
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 6:25 PM, 03/25/2009
    The interetsing thing is.. there's people who live in Philadelphia.. who love the Eagles.. and hate the Cowboys and their fans. I know for a fact that some of these same people are Duke fans. These same people want Duke to beat Villanova. These same people went to the Wachovia Center a few years ago and wore blue when Duke was playing Temple. I realize college is different than the pros, but..
    — bobbyd24
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:08 PM, 03/25/2009
    E-P-I, E-P-I, E-P-I-S-C-O-P-A-L.... There's also more than just a casual connection between Coaches Doc and K (see: history of West Point basketball). Henderson could have attended any of the area schools, I'm sure he chose EA because of Doc. Doc and K are cut from the same cloth and are friends. It's possible that this connection had more to do with Duke 'plucking' G than anything else. Rich, you should know this, having attended EA's safety college (dating back to the days of Ben Franklin and William White) :)
    — bizurk
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:36 PM, 03/25/2009
    For these comments by Coach K to justify hatred for Duke, it's necessary to assume that all schools are equal in terms of academic opportunity. There is nothing condescending in his comments. Not all universities have the same resources available to students, and that makes some more popular, and unfortunately, more hated.
    — Hal2
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:39 PM, 03/25/2009
    Yup, Doc coached at West Point and Coach K right after him there. Also, G was a McDonald's All-American, as was his EA classmate Wayne Ellington who chose UNC. Some schools just happen to attract the McDonald's All-Americans. It's an elite 8-10 colleges, and Nova is just on the outside of that group. Nova was also Ellington's second choice. They are great friends, but wanted to attend different colleges after being together in high school. Duke and UNC are two of the best programs in the country and they are 8 miles apart, so they can visit each other.
    — kingnutter
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:34 PM, 03/25/2009
    I hate Duke. Everyone I know who actually lives in the state of NC says they're a UNC or NC State fan. Dookies are a bunch of posers....kind of like Notre Dame fans and Yankee fans.
    — solexy
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:58 PM, 03/25/2009
    this game should be played in a closed gym with neither set of annoying fans. one basketball move i've really learned to hate this year is the "duke slide" underneath a driving player followed by coach k's "i just ate a lemon" look to the ref. i've noticed in the ncaa that they're not getting that call as much. ncaa needs to adopt the nba dotted lane configuration to stop this practice.
    — natedog
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:22 PM, 03/25/2009
    As Coach K said in this poorly reported article, Duke is a national school. So obviously the residents of NC will tend to favor the state schools, such as UNC or NC State. How does that make Dookies posers? What exactly are they posing as? Blind prejudice doesn't help anyone.
    — Hal2
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:40 PM, 03/25/2009
    Don't hate Duke because its great coach knows it is a national school and Villanova is a regional school. That's just a fact. Hate Duke because it was founded on tobacco money and remains dedicated to the buck, not to anything else but the buck, and never will care about anythinbg but the buck. Duke is a national school, but as long as it is dedicated only to the buck, it will never be a great school. Think about the difference between Harvard and Yale, and note that he mentioned Harvard. Yale is far superior academically, and in terms of what it has given society. Harvard is far more about Harvard. That's what Duke is all about - Duke.
    — Bake McBride
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:21 PM, 03/25/2009
    Why does Coach K look exactly like the Duke Blue Devil Mascott? I sure hope Nova can knock them on their butts and out of the tourney! I also hope the refs let them play and not cater to the Doodies. What a bunch of arrogant pansies. Lets Go Nova! I personally do not like Duke because I feel their fans are a bunch of front runners. Can't debate their success but that is another reason I do not like them. Lets all jump up and down like a bunch of fools.
    — Reggie92
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:05 AM, 03/26/2009
    coach K always look like he is wearing a wig
    — broad
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:15 AM, 03/26/2009
    Speaking as a loyal philly sports fan and university of maryland alum...F*ck Duke!
    — drdave
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 5:37 AM, 03/26/2009
    Hal2, the poser statement has to do w/ fans who glom onto the "easy" teams, the ones who always win , or the teams that seem to have some sort of "divine" place in their respective sporting worlds. It's kind of the same mentality where someone who lives in the Philly area roots for the Cowboys even though he/she has absolutely no family or geographic connection to Dallas or even Texas.
    — solexy
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:46 PM, 03/26/2009
    People are making too big of a deal out of Coach K's comments. He is right, Duke is a more nationally known than Villanova. Not taking anything away from Nova, but that's just the way it is. Duke is one of the top programs ever, so they are going to pull athletes from all over the country. I'm not even a huge Duke fan, I just respect what they do. But even with that being said, I hope and think Nova will win the game.
    — bigticket


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About Rich Hofmann
Rich Hofmann arrived at the Daily News in 1980 for a job whose status was officially designated as "full-time, temporary." A senior at Penn at the time, he was hired to fill in on the copy desk during a staff illness. The notion of him covering the Eagles or being a columnist did not exist in anyone's imagination. It was supposed to be six weeks and out, but he never left. It is only one of the reasons why so many people have concerns about him as a potential house guest. Rich has blogged the postseasons of the Flyers and Eagles. E-mail Rich at hofmanr@phillynews.com

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