Duke, and Other March Villains

Along with the obligatory madness, March always brings along a slew of detestable teams and characters. This year, thankfully, Billy Packer is gone, but Josh Levin, writing for Slate, still has plenty to disparage. The list starts, as always, with:

• Duke: This isn’t the most deplorable squad ever, but Coach K’s “basketball as leadership seminar” style always evokes a bit of vitriol.
• Jim Calhoun: The Connecticut coach’s “classlessness and self-aggrandizing bring shame to a shameless profession.”

• North Dakota State: What’s wrong with the plucky Bison? Well, they cynically redshirted all their freshmen back in 2004. Hoosiers? More like Van Wilder.
• Eric Devendorf: He punched a woman and “harmed” another student, and Syracuse suspended him for a whopping two games. Now he plays “with the joylessness and hostility of a schoolyard bully.”
• Jay Bilas: “Billy Packer would be proud.”

(More college basketball stories.)