Bomani Jones loves to hate Duke. Absolutely loves it.<\/p>\n
As an Atlanta native who earned a master\u2019s degree from North Carolina and hosted a radio show in Durham, hating Duke is one of Jones\u2019 favorite passions. In 2022 he dedicated 15 minutes of his HBO show<\/a> to a history lesson poking fun at Mike Krzyzewski\u2019s legacy ahead of the coach\u2019s retirement. He followed Krzyzewski\u2019s last home game, a loss to UNC, via live stats on his phone because service was bad on a train.<\/p>\n \u201cI could not believe how excited I was to watch Duke lose in stats, in text form,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Every March, he drives the bus again. But when Jones began his YouTube show Monday, March 16, on the eve of the NCAA Tournament, his Duke hate call-out had become more of a plea<\/a>. It was more important than ever to jump on the anti-Duke bandwagon, he said, because not enough people are on it anymore.<\/p>\n For 40 years, Duke has been college basketball\u2019s most polarizing team. The aura of Cameron Indoor Stadium. The floor-slapping. The banners. Coach K. The global fan base inflated by people who didn\u2019t attend the small private school. Christian Laettner\u2019s stomp on the chest of Kentucky\u2019s Aminu Timberlake in 1992. Grayson Allen\u2019s history of tripping incidents. The idea, despite all that, that Duke did things the right way. It\u2019s always been a lot.<\/p>\n As the Blue Devils make another NCAA Tournament run with some of the best players in the country, it\u2019s time to have a conversation similar to the one we\u2019ve begun to have about Notre Dame football<\/a>.<\/p>\n Has Duke basketball become less hateable? Perhaps, maybe, even likable?<\/p>\n The generational hatred for Laettner was the subject of an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary. Radio personality Peter Rosenberg made raps<\/a> about why Duke sucks 18 years ago. It\u2019s been more than 35 years since ESPN analyst Jay Bilas played at Duke, but opposing fans still rag on him for it. But now? SB Nation writer James Dator, who comes from a UNC family, wrote a column last year titled, \u201cDuke is actually likable this year, and it feels so wrong,\u201d<\/a> chronicling his appreciation for the play of Wooden Award winner Cooper Flagg, who was selected by the Dallas Mavericks with the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not as hostile anymore,\u201d Chris Carrawell, a former Duke All-American and current Blue Devils assistant coach, said last week. \u201cWe used to go into some environments, man, where they\u2019re going after you. \u2026 Sometimes they stepped over the line. Habitual line crossers. But now it\u2019s not the same.\u201d<\/p>\n So what\u2019s changed? There are a few theories.<\/p>\n One is that Duke hasn\u2019t won as big. The program last won the national title in 2015 and has made only three Final Fours since 2011. One of those was last year, and when the Blue Devils squandered a late lead against Houston, the joy in Duke\u2019s loss was widespread like the old days, complete with memes from the third season of HBO\u2019s \u201cThe White Lotus\u201d that the school condemned in a statement<\/a>. But there haven\u2019t been as many high-profile March moments like there were from 1986 to 2010, when Duke reached 11 Final Fours and won four national titles. To fully appreciate a Duke loss, it must involve a fall from a perch.<\/p>\n A younger generation hasn\u2019t grown up with Duke dominance to tire of. And in an expanded media environment, fans can watch any game at any time, instead of limited national games filled by Duke.<\/p>\n \u201cI grew up a Dodger fan, and I didn\u2019t like the Yankees because every time you turned the TV on, they were always on,\u201d said Bilas, who also worked as an assistant coach under Krzyzewski. \u201cBut Duke is one of the highest-rated teams on air.\u201d<\/p>\n