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                1. Learning from Losers

                  24.Mar.08, 11:51 EDT

                  Today’s great insight arrives via radio personality Colin Cowherd—or at least from his producers:

                  Only three times in the last 11 seasons has Duke lived up to its NCAA hoops tournament seeding. Says ESPN's Cowherd of the second-seeded Blue Devils, who lost to West Virginia on Saturday, “Duke baskeball is Notre Dame football." In other words, the program is breathtakingly overrated.

                  Getting seeded No. 2 means the tournament selection committee sees a squad as one of the nation’s top eight. Duke barely escaped the first round with a squeaker over obscure Belmont and was blown out in the second half of the game against seventh-seeded West Virginia. It’s not hard to imagine a Charlie Weiss-like season in the offing for Mike Krzyzewski.

                  I guess I’m what you’d call a Duke Hater. While the impulse to hate the smug Carolina jocks can lead some dangerous places, I try to rein in my opprobrium, limiting it to calling bullshit on Kyle “Four points” Singler’s acclaim. And to the Duke fluffers who explain the antipathy its Mecca generates the following way: “They hate us because our players are articulate and real student athletes.” No, we hate you because you wave your tradition the world’s face.

                  And maybe I save a little bad feeling for Coach K because his of how he pads his $1.5 million salary. I mean, Duke’s a private school, so dude should get paid whatever the administrators will kick down. Whatever’s clever, you know?. But don’t make me feel like he’s some saint while the guy who kicked his ass this weekend gets painted some sort of villain. Angsty Bob Huggins is just less slick about his contradictions. Krzyzewski's a pimp, too; he only dresses fresher.

                  You might think that I’m bitter. After all, the tourney’s largest upset so far, Davidson over Georgetown, knocked out one of my Final Four teams. And USC lost in the first round. But I’m actually far from mad. Not only are three of my four picks alive, but I’ve sorta fallen in love with West Virginia. I watched the Mountainers play extremely well in its conference tournament. And my fam’s from West Virginia, so they got the sentiment factor going for them.

                  But I don’t see Huggins’ heroes advancing past the Tar Heels. North Carolina should join UCLA, Texas and Kansas on Final Four weekend. Still, I’ll get a lot out of West Virginia’s effort; you can learn a lot from losers.

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