Olson on Duke home and home

[CrazyIvan]

Excerpt from an Arizona Daily Star article by Bruce Pascoe about scheduling:


Even today, Olson has to be careful. He said he nearly signed a deal to play at Duke this season, as part of a home-and-home series, but became suspicious when the Blue Devils would not specify a return date for Tucson in 2005-06.

"Then the next thing was I got a call from CBS and they said, 'Well, Duke wants to play you at the Meadowlands,' " Olson said. "I said, 'You know what? We'll play the neutral site game in Phoenix or the Pond (of Anaheim, Calif.). But other than that, you just call Duke up and tell them to go fly a kite.' ''

[Chicat]

"Then the next thing was I got a call from CBS and they said, 'Well, Duke wants to play you at the Meadowlands,'

I guess it's a minor victory if you can get them to leave their area code . . .

[Ben Hansen]

From talking to Ryan Hansen, UA's Director of Basketball Operations, all I can say is I feel badly for what he has to do when dealing with Duke about scheduling potential games with them.

Ryno has tried and tried and tried to get Duke back on the schedule and I think he even told me UA would agree to a 2-for-1, meaning two at Duke, one at McKale. Won't happen. Duke will only come West if it's for a game in the LA area for recruiting purposes.

Those guys are a punch of Ninnies when it comes to non-conference games. Okay, okay, I'll say what I mean. They are a bunch of p u s s i e s.

[killervibe]

Im confused, was the Meadowlands offer in addition to the home and home or was it in place of one of those games?

[Bison79]

I'd take the Meadowlands I guess, in a chance to kick their krys-a-lot asses on national television...

Face it, the krys-a-lots will always stay in their home state...

I mean who wants to go to cancer road and risk getting sick from just playing in that arena?

[Indywildcatfan]

The staff at Puke knows that their name will only carry them so far. As long as they win, regardless of who they play they will remain in the top 25. They don't have to worry about loosing because of the powder puff schedule, but if they were to actually play a top nonconference team and loose, bye bye top 25. Please, someone ask Coach K's wife to give Coach K his balls back.

Plus it always helps when you have Duke Vitale helping you with your schedule.

[CrazyIvan]

What I got from the article was duke wanted their home game on their court and, to return the favor, play the return Arizona "home" game at the meadowlands.
Apparently Lute would go with it, but the neutral court had to be in the west, Phoenix or the Pond. It appears Duke wouldn't go for it, too far from home!

[catgrad97]

Thank you, Lute, for my new signature! Duke, take your cream-puff, pansy, candy-a s s scheduling and go fly a kite!

We'll see the Blue Devils in March back out West as (if they're lucky) a three seed in California someplace and see if they can advance past the Mountain West conference champions in the first round. In the meantime, good luck to the nancy boys on a top-three ACC finish!

[BlueWaterCat]

Anyone else attend a certain double-overtime victory over Puke ~15 years ago? McKale wasn't just rocking. It was seismically active for 3 hours.

Clearly, Puke is still scarred from the experience.

- BWC

[Stoopstrooper]

Originally Posted by BlueWaterCat

Anyone else attend a certain double-overtime victory over Puke ~15 years ago? McKale wasn't just rocking. It was seismically active for 3 hours.

Clearly, Puke is still scarred from the experience.

- BWC

Didn't Duke get screwed in that game (ie a 3 pointer that was counted as a 2). That one point was the difference between victory and defeat. Maybe that is why K won't come back (Kinda like Lute won't go back to the Pit).

Don't get me wrong. I hate Duke. They are a bunch of p u s s i e s. But something fishy did happen in that particular game.

[2002Alum]

I'm surprised that any school would turn down the opportunity to play UofA. If you lose, who cares, look who you lost to. It's not you'd be losing to a piss poor basketball program like ASwho. It would be great recognition for both schools and an opportunity for the East Coast to prove that there are no good basketball programs out west. Yeah right...

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by Ted D. Brooski

Didn't Duke get screwed in that game (ie a 3 pointer that was counted as a 2). That one point was the difference between victory and defeat. Maybe that is why K won't come back (Kinda like Lute won't go back to the Pit).

Don't get me wrong. I hate Duke. They are a bunch of p u s s i e s. But something fishy did happen in that particular game.

Duke lost a tough game. It was NOTHING like the blatant cheating that always went on in the armPit. Duke won't play us again because they won't play anybody good on their home court.

[MountainCat]

Originally Posted by Ted D. Brooski

Didn't Duke get screwed in that game (ie a 3 pointer that was counted as a 2). That one point was the difference between victory and defeat. Maybe that is why K won't come back (Kinda like Lute won't go back to the Pit).

Don't get me wrong. I hate Duke. They are a bunch of p u s s i e s. But something fishy did happen in that particular game.

NO!

I was their also. Duke complained (The coach mostly) about the difference of foul shooting calls. We had like 30 to their 10. The reality of it was that Duke finally knew what it felt like being a visiting team at Cameron. Sure being at McKale we got a few more calls our way, but for every punch we receive, we gave one back. We drove to the basket, Duke waited for the ref to call it - GAME.

The funny part of it for me was, the next morning I was picking up a family member at the airport at the same time the Duke team was leaving. The whole team was waiting at the security check waiting for something. It turned out to be Coach K#%%&()). He set off the metal detector and security was going through his carry-on bags. The look on his face was classic. It was obvious he couldn't wait to get out of town. Either way, I got to say hello to the players for a momment and laugh at their coach.

[throatybeard]

There seems to be an underlying assumption here that Duke fans are happy with our scheduling the last few years.

There are a few people who will defend most anything Coach K does.

But the rest of us really miss playing home-and-homes with your Arizonas, Oklahomas, UCLAs, what have you.

Now, each individual schedule decision wasn't necessarily Duke's fault. UCLA pulled out on us after 1998. We replaced them with St. John's. Right now St. John's is our only real road game (insofar as SJU consisders MSG their home floor).

Other scheduling decisions made recently I like. Krzyzewski decided in about 2000 that it was about time to start playing some mid-majors instead of having all the non-big-6-conference opponents be people like NCA&T and UNC-G. This I applaud. We've played Valpo, Butler, Dayton, SDSU, UIC, and a bunch of similar schools. Several of these have been NCAAT teams. We even went to Portland and we gave Valpo a quasi-home game at the United Center.

But all in all, our unwillingness to play big teams at their place is very disappointing to Duke fans, I would say by about a 3-to-1 margin. So we aren't any happier with this than you are.

Good for Lute. There's no reason AZ should give ANYbody a 2-for-1, especially one in which the 1 is in LA or PHX.

[Irish27]

Originally Posted by BlueWaterCat

Anyone else attend a certain double-overtime victory over Puke ~15 years ago? McKale wasn't just rocking. It was seismically active for 3 hours.

Clearly, Puke is still scarred from the experience.

- BWC

I was at both wins agaisnt Duke at McKale. One of my favorite games that I ever attended was when we beat Duke to win our holiday tournament. Sean capped the game with a slam dunk. Coach K was such a big whiner, always complaining about the calls. Lute and him had words during the game. It was classic.