Bedeviled
Posted March 5, 2006, 10:01 PM ET

What's wrong with Duke?

They enter this week's ACC Tournament on a two-game losing streak and they are winless in March. That's "madness", indeed.

I can assure you that nobody in ACC Country is feeling sorry for the 27-3 Blue Devils, but there is an interesting trend taking place with this Duke basketball team.

Duke receives more media attention than any basketball program on the planet. That comes with the territory when you are Mike Krzyzewski and the program that he has established in Durham. Duke has earned the praise and criticism...it comes with being the "standard" by which everybody is measured in college basketball.

Coach K, and even some of his Duke-loving alums in the broadcasting business are trying to convince America that there is no conspiracy regarding the Blue Devils and preferential treatment from the refs.

Before Duke was upset by UNC over the weekend, Coach K was adamant about the amount of negative exposure his program had received concerning the referees and their respective calls.

On the eve of the UNC game, Coach K went on the offensive regarding the fouls situation and said, "I hope when ESPN does the game, I hope they can show something and say, 'Hey that Duke player was fouled and nothing was called.' They should have a cam on J.J. then they'll get all the stuff they need."

It's about time Coach K started to defend his program....you heard me....it is about time. I stated two weeks ago on my radio show that Coach K had missed a golden opportunity to turn the tide with the national debate about how his program gets "all the calls". The facts and the numbers were right in front of him, but he missed it.

Now, I'm going to prove to you that Duke has been getting treated differently since that controversial win against Florida State in early February...the numbers don't lie.

The "Duke Conspiracy Theory" reached it's zenith on February 4th, when the Blue Devils beat Florida State, 97-96 in overtime at Cameron Indoor Stadium. In this game, Duke shot 43 free throws and the 'Noles attempted only 11 from the charity stripe. In a game as competitive and well played as this one, it should be nearly impossible for the FT discrepency to be this large.

The media and Duke-haters had a field day. The ACC had to react and they did. The conference decided to suspend three officials: Edward Corbett, Ray Natili and Mike Eades for their "incorrect assessment and handling of a dead ball technical foul"...Excuse me while I gag.

It had nothing to do with a blown call...if that was the case, every official in America needs to be suspended. It had everything to do with 43-11. America and every ACC team this side of Durham had seen enough.

Now follow my lead on this one...After the Duke win over FSU on 2/4/06, the Blue Devils had played 9 ACC games. In those 9 games, Duke had shot 96 more free throws than their conference opponents. That comes to an average of 10.66 more free throw attempts per conference game.

Now here is when the tide turned on Coach K and Duke. In the final 7 ACC games of the regular season, Duke has shot 5 less free throws than their ACC opponents. That's right, 5 less!

How is that possible? Same teams, same refs, same players...nobody from Duke is injured...J.J. Redick is still firing away from the 3-point line...Sheldon is still taking care of business inside...and Duke is still using the same 7-man rotation.

The only thing that has changed is the scrutiny and national attention to the "Duke Conspiracy Theory". How do you explain the fact that one of the best teams in college basketball can go from averaging 10.6 more free throw attempts in their first 9 conference games, and in the blink of an eye, now get outshot from the charity stripe?

That is impossible...unless there has been a change in the way the game is called against Duke. Either Duke was getting breaks beyond belief in the first half of the season, or there has been a directed change in how Duke was going to get called by the refs in the second half of the season.

The numbers are astonishing.

And for everybody that thinks Duke gets all the calls, all you have to do is check out the "Infamous ACC Index Card"...the final results are posted on this site. You'll notice when it comes to total fouls called on each ACC team, Duke was called for 296 fouls this season, and that's 6th best out of the ACC's 12-teams. You can make a case for style of play and other factors with that total. In the last 5 years, Duke has finished 5th, 9th(last), 4th, 5th and now 6th in this category. That hardly seems like an impressive total considering Duke's reputation for getting all the calls.

But the number that jumps off the page is the FT attempts in ACC games for Duke since that crazy game on February 4th in Durham.

If I were Coach K, I would make this known to anybody that is willing to listen. I would forward the "Index Card" and this journal entry to all of the Dookies in the business...Jay Bilas, Seth Davis, Mike Gminski, Jim Spanarkle, and maybe even one to honorary Duke family member Dick Vitale.

But, as I stated earlier, nobody is going to feel sorry for Coach K and Duke basketball.