“I don’t think Mike Krzyzewski is liked by all Duke fans,” Fowler said.
Holy mother of pearl. The man’s finally lost it.
Duke fans who don’t like Coach K? Where, precisely, are those people? Are they in the same magic box with the “moderate Arabs,” low-maintenance girls who use coke, and dignified leisure suits?
I’ve long been critical of Fowler for various reasons. But, in turn, I’ve always understood why he says what he says. He needs to support his coach, so Sendek detractors are a “lunatic fringe.” He needs to bank the firestorm of (well-deserved) criticism that roasted Chuck Amato last fall, so he issues a statement of support. I don’t like it, but I get it.
This comment, though, is just nuts. Duke fans who don’t like Coach K are about as common as Reagan-hating Republicans and United States Marines who thought the Soviet Union was just peachy keen. Such people simply don’t exist.
And for good reason: What’s not to like about Coach K, for the Duke fan? His multiple national titles? Enough ACC titles to paper your average walk-in closet? That he runs the clean program Fowler extols in Coach Sendek and at the same time largely dominates both the ACC AND his own school’s arch-rival, UNC – while giving NC State regular beatings in the process?
Fowler should spend less time making – let’s be honest – jaw-droppingly idiotic comments like this, and more time pondering why his university athletics programs generally pull a distant third (barring Duke football) to two area universities whose every basketball matchup is a national media event.
Defending Herb Sendek by claiming similar fan discontent about Coach K isn’t just erroneous, though. It’s nonsense, squared. Why? Even if it was true (which, of course, it’s not), it has absolutely no bearing on fan displeasure with Coach Sendek, nor does it cause those facts – 8-38 for example – stoking such displeasure to evaporate as airily as Fowler himself tosses out this rhetorical Tartuffery.
I’ll make you a deal, Lee: You get us a program that wins like Coach K’s, and I’ll defend you even when you say something this clueless. Until then, stick to comments on the programs you manage – and to the facts.
