Bracket Busted

Associated Press

It's done.

Another season over; another "favorite team" walking off in defeat.

Although, this loss is different. Duke isn't a Buffalo team. They're not a team that everyone I know roots for. In fact, outside of my family and about four friends, no one I know bleeds "Duke Blue" (as opposed to Tar Heel Blue) during college basketball season.

It's tough to be in the minority when cheering for a sports team. When they win, you have only a few people to share the joy with. When they lose, you have only a few people to wipe your tears with.

I know most of you could care less about this loss. Maybe some of you picked them in your bracket and you're mad that they got beat 77-54 by lower-seeded Villanova. Maybe some of you called the upset (which was really a bad draw for Duke from the start) and are celebrating their offensive failure. Maybe some of you just genuinely hate the Blue Devils and love to see Coach K. and his team eliminated.

For me, though, this is the third hardest elimination from the postseason to watch (with the Sabres and Bills before it).

Associated Press

It's hard to write about this because I know that a lot of you who read this are happy to see this team go down once again. For some reason, Duke is a perennial "Evil Empire" in college basketball (even if the last time they won the whole thing was in 2001).

That's the thing, though; the more people tell me that they hate this team, the stronger my passion for Duke becomes. I love my small contingent of Duke fans because we share something that very few people understand. We're Cameron Crazies. We can spell Krzyzewski without Google and may have even been to "Krzyzewskiville" itself. We dream of going to Cameron Indoor Arena. We cried when Redick and Williams left without a championship. We rejoice when we see another Facebook status exclaiming "Let's Go Duke!" on game night.

So this is for the people who love Gerald Henderson more than Tyler Hansbrough, who know and appreciate the tragic backstory of Nolan Smith. If I can make one Duke fan who feels alienated from their sports community for liking Greg Paulus feel like they belong, then this post was a success.

To all you Duke haters, go ahead and trash them in the comments like I know you want to. It's only going to fuel my passion for Jon Scheyer and his teammates. Debating makes being a sports fan great, and I am more than ready to defend my Devils.