Dick Vitale Rips Duke After Blowout Loss to Miami
By Josh Hill
The Miami Hurricanes pulled off one of the most impressive upsets of the college basketball season, soundly routing Duke 90-63 on Wednesday night. The game was one that ESPN happened to be showcasing, but there was very little of the usually pom-pom shaking for Duke, in fact at one point in the second halfDick Vitale started to relentlessly rant about Duke’s performance.
“This is the poorest performance I have witnessed from a Duke team in all my years sitting courtside,” Vitale said during live ESPN broadcast. “Warm up the bus, this game is over. …(The Blue Devils) have no one to blame but themselves.”
Vitale even penned an article for ESPN.com where he continued his rant about Duke, and how they were just straight up beat by the ‘Canes.
"In all of my years of calling games, I cannot remember seeing Duke struggle like that. Miami was able to penetrate and get so many easy baskets. It was layup after layup, dunk after dunk. It was a true a mismatch, pretty much over late in the first half.Give Miami credit for this win. Defense led to plenty of fast-break points. Duke had a horrible night shooting, with Seth Curry, Quinn Cook and Tyler Thornton really having a tough time."
Duke’s loss to Miami is just the latest twist in a topsy-turvy NCAA regular season. So far three teams have been ranked No. 1 in the polls and each of those teams has fallen. Indiana was ranked No. 1 at the start of the season and has since fallen back to No. 7, while the Louisville Cardinals and now the Duke Blue Devils have also fallen from the top ranking. The loss for Duke comes on the heels of an incredible week in college basketball that saw all of the remaining undefeated teams toppled.
Despite being one of those undefeated’s toppled last week, the Michigan Wolverines are in line to take over the No. 1 spot in the Top 25, but No. 3 Kansas is also another option. Syracuse is ranked no. 4 and along with Michigan, Kansas and No. 6 Arizona, are the only remaining team in the Top 25 team with only one loss.
It’s been an exciting basketball season so far, with March Madness type drama infusing itself into regular season play. If the season’s been this exciting, March truly will be filled with absolute madness.