Duke, Coach K and the refs
A mini-controversy seems to have erupted over at The News and Observer's ACC Now blog over a series of questions posed by staff writer J.P. Giglio to Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski regarding his relationship with game officials during Monday's Atlantic Coast Conference coaches teleconference.
The responses to Giglio have run the gamut - from Duke haters comparing Coach K's party-line responses to those from the Bush White House to queries regarding the Iraq war and the Dick Cheney shooting all the way to Duke fans questioning the merits of giving the years-old discussion of an alleged ACC conspiracy anything more in the way of legs.
I probably come down somewhere in the middle of the two extremes - with the feeling that it's certainly stretching it to sincerely believe that the ACC instructs its officials to give the Dukies special treatment, sure, but then again, when you look at the statistics, it's hard to argue that it doesn't appear that this is the case, at least on paper.
Through this past weekend's games, Duke was getting to the free-throw line nearly 10 more times a game than its opponents - which, I have to point out, in itself isn't evidence that the Blue Devils are getting favoritism, because it is indeed true, as Duke apologists have long asserted, that Krzyzewski's attacking offense is going to lead most games to additional trips to the charity stripe, one, and two that his teams are going to get to the line more at the end of games with opponents fouling to stop the clock when behind.
But as the critics would no doubt counter, that wouldn't seem to account for the nine-attempt difference that we see in the box score for the December win over Virginia Tech - which played even with the Blue Devils throughout and appeared primed for the upset until Sean Dockery nailed a 40-footer at the buzzer.
Neither would it account for the discrepancies in narrow wins over Florida State (Duke hoisted 43 foul shots to FSU's 11 in a one-point overtime triumph) or Boston College (Duke won the free-throw-attempt battle 37-13 in a two-point victory on the road).
That both the Seminoles and Eagles feature powerful inside games that one would expect to see result in more trips to the line should not be overlooked here.
Nor should the fact that Coach K's defenders are known across the ACC and across the country for their stifling brand of hard-nosed D - which one might expect to lead to a few extra whistles going against them on a game-by-game basis.
That all having been said, it's hard to make the case from a few casual scans of box scores and observations of a handful of conference games that Duke gets favorable treatment from the ACC.
Until Deep Throat emerges from the shadows of a Tobacco Road parking garage with something more in the way of documentation, I'm going to have to consider this case closed.
- Chris Graham


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