Is it over? Are they finally gone? Have we seen the last of the Duke Blue Devils basketball team in the state of Maryland? We couldn’t have bid them a finer farewell! The Good (Terps) 83 points, the Bad (refs – relentless grief from the student section) and the Ugly Dukies 81 points - See Ya! The Terps get the Dukies once next year during the regular season and Mark Turgeon probably said it best – “Doubt the ACC is going to do us any favors.” With the Big Ten move, it appears we have seen the last of Duke at College Park. I am old school, I am a Maryland alum, I am sick of Coach K (the Rat Man) and I am sick of Duke basketball.

Hopefully you caught the show Saturday evening. It was quite an event. It was ugly, (26 turnovers), but they won. The young Terps refused to lose. The rested Terps ran circles around los arrogant ones, out rebounded the Dukies 40 -20, shot like 60%  and still barely managed to squeak out a 2-point victory. Carolina refs were present. I had to mute Doris (Dukie) Burke many times throughout the broadcast. Some young smart mouthed kid named Quinn Cook, (Dukie guard) claimed Gary Williams court was ”his city”.  And Lenny ate up Mason Plumlee. “O” that’s right, he was exhausted. Eat it Coach K.

Best part about watching it on ESPN? The crowd played well on the tube. I am not much on the cursing from the student section – I believe they could be more creative. But for once, I was glad to hear and even proud at times of “REF – YOU S…K”! Because they did and a national television audience got a taste of what loyal Terp fans have been getting handed for the past 40 years – lopsided calls. Doris (Dukie) Burke did acknowledge the late game ”charging” call on Dez Wells, ”should have been a no call”, when a Pukie had clearly not established ground. I do not agree with the “Rock n’ Roll Part II” - (Gary Glitter)/ Hey, You S…k chant, when the #2 in the nation is in your house. They are not in the top 10 because they s…k. I really don’t like it against any team. But, since it was Puke and since it was the last time they were going to be here….let ’em have it. I also did enjoy the “B…L S…T”, “You Can’t Do That”, “LET’S GO TERPS”, etc. The place was electric. If you haven’t seen this “flash mob” clip, watch it. Terpland on a high -http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=G1qoZxWAsk8  – it was good clean fun.

My daughter was there. She hit me up with text pictures. From the early afternoon pics, 4 hours prior to game time and Terp faithful lined up outside waiting to get in, up until the storming of the court after the final buzzer. Got me all choked up inside. The kids experienced a night at Comcast, that hopefully will never forget.”O” the memories…………..my “stormin’ the court game” was when the Terps beat then #1 ranked UVA and Ralph Sampson (1982), in overtime at Cole. I remember Adrian Branch going off and Mark Fothergill playing Sampson tough. Then I believe Fothergill hit a late game field goal from the corner to ice it. Do you all have a “stormin the court” moment?

I don’t like Duke. I have not liked Duke since Jim Spanarkel and Mike Gminski. I am tired of the arrogance. I am tired of the preferential treatment. I am tired of the money. I am tired of the whining. I am tired of them winning. I am tired of Mike Krzyzewski. And if those weren’t reasons enough, there was the Final Four game in 2001. That loss still gives me chills. I dislike Duke more than any other sports team. I don’t like the majority of Yankee fans, Steeler fans and especially Red Sox fans. The teams…….. I can put up with (well, maybe not the Yankees). But Duke is in a class all by itself. It has always been, “Anybody but Duke”.  I really think that adage originated with Duke basketball. I am not going to miss Terps/Duke basketball. I know my blood pressure will be better for it.

I’m not buying this, “the rivalry is gone”. Duke is not our rival, people. UVA is our rival. The Duke rival is UNC. Terp fans don’t like Duke. Terp fans want to beat Duke. Terp fans would like to think Duke is our rival……….but they are not. And who should care anymore? We gone. We is going to the midwest. Now watch, Coach K will retire. The 5 Super Conferences are right around the corner. The real intrigue is, who will be following the Terps to the Big 20 or whatever the conference becomes? All I can say is, anybody is welcome, “Anybody But Duke!” GO TERPS!

D.I.Y.

Fedman
 

It only takes a simple search of “Penn State” on Twitter to see that the cult surrounding the school is still alive.  You can see tweets ranging from support of Paterno to complete denial that anything has even happened.  The point being, the majority of the Penn State community still hasn’t learned its lesson and isn’t showing signs that it wants to.  It’s really quite sad and disturbing.

 Last week, I was able to speak to two somewhat “reasonable” (reasonable meaning they actually formulated ideas within our conversation) Penn State students on Twitter the day the news broke about the possible removal of Joe Paterno’s statue outside of Beaver Stadium.  After I was first cursed at for even insinuating that a cult like atmosphere existed within the school, I was able to have a semi-intelligent conversation with them.  I’m not going to give out their names or Twitter handles but a simple look through my tweets will deliver you the conversation.

One of the students told me, “I’m just tired of people disrespecting the school I love. It’s sickening. People outside of PSU have no idea.”  This seems to be the most common argument among people in the Penn State community.  It’s been used since the very beginning.  Even to defend the riots.  The student is right, kind of.  Of course we can’t understand; we aren’t a part of your cult. However, your school wouldn’t be under so much fire if your leaders, especially the man who you essentially worshipped, didn’t cover up and try to protect a monster of whom they were all well aware of.

“It seems that everyone rather blame JoePa for Sandusky, than anyone else. You could blame Spanier, PSU police, jerry’s wife,” the same student went on to say.  Yes, we would rather blame Paterno.  He has (had) a statue in the middle of your campus.  He was the one who was most powerful at your university, as outlined in the Freeh report.  He was the figurehead of your university and when the most prominent people fail a community, they must be taken down.

There are even people out there who are still skeptical of the Freeh Report, if not completely denying the facts in it, saying that it is a mere smear campaign against Paterno and the rest.  When your own school accepts the findings, you probably should too.  The first step to recovery is accepting there’s a problem, folks.

“But that statue is there for everything good about Penn State…the man did 100 times more good than bad.”  I agree that the statue was supposed to represent good.  Of course it wasn’t supposed to represent the bad.  But now it does.  That’s the reality of it.  Had it not been removed, people would immediately think of what Paterno didn’t do rather than what he did if they saw it.  Paterno did some good things for the Penn State community.  Unfortunately for him and for them, he did horrible things as well.  It’s time that the cult realizes this.

Before the second student started bashing the university I attend, they stated, “no cult, just pride. We are the students, not the ones to blame.”  No one is blaming you.  We are criticizing you for supporting leaders and a school that failed you.  And if it was me, I am not sure how I could have pride in my school if this is what they are now known for.

Yes.  This level of intelligence in people exists…

When the news broke last week that the statue of Joe Paterno would be removed this weekend, a sense of relief came over me.  Not only has it been taken down but the NCAA has handed down “unprecedented” sanctions, most notably: a fine of $60 million to fund an endowment for victims of sexual abuse, a ban from post season play 4 years,  a cut in scholarships from 25 to 15 for 4 years, and forced vacating of wins from 1998-2011.

For most of us, the Penn State saga ended today. For some in the Penn State community though, they will go on saying that the sanctions are unfair and unwarranted.  They can continue to be blind to what has happened but now we can at least ignore them.  The penalties have been handed down and the statue is gone.

The first students last response in regards to Paterno’s good deeds was this: “After time passes, people will remember. I promise that! If it (the statue) does go down, it will be back there someday.”  It’s these types of people who will just never get it.  They will never get that what their idols and the school they love so much did was wrong.  They will never be able to break away from the cult that is only hurting them.  But we don’t have to worry about them anymore.  The time for arguments is over.  These people will just drink the Kool-Aid and fade away.