Why Duke Is No Longer "Duke": The Struggles of a Former Champion

By Nick Shepkowski of 670 The Score

With Thursday night's pounding applied by Villanova, the Duke Blue Devils failed to advance past the round of 16 yet again, making it now five years since the Blue Devils reached the Elite Eight or further. 

In the past half-decade, Coach K and his Blue Devil squad have won two regular season ACC Championships and three ACC Tournament Championships. This may seem great by most other standards, but when it comes to the Devils, they have not been the same since 2004.

By looking at the players, you can tell the times have changed in Durham, N.C. Remember the turn of the millennium, when guys like Elton Brand, Corey Maggette, Shane Battier, Mike Dunleavy, Jason Williams, and Carlos Boozer were tearing up the hardwoods at Cameron Indoor Stadium? 

Duke used to have players like this, not just one or two at a time, but a starting lineup just about stockpiled full of NBA talents. Since those days, we have seen the likes of JJ Redick, Jon Scheyer, Kyle Singler, and Gerald Henderson fill the spotlight.

Redick was obviously a great college talent because of his ability to shoot from anywhere and get away with a slow release in the college game, but outside of him and Sheldon Williams, who has Duke had that screams NBA talent at you? Some will argue Henderson, who I have plenty of doubts about, but even at that, he's only one player on the current team.

The Duke of old would wipe the floor clean with what the current Duke team puts on the court.

People hate Duke because Dick Vitale loves everything about Mike Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils. People hate Duke because if there are five or six power conference teams with the same case for a higher seed in the NCAA Tournament, they feel that Duke is given the highest spot available by default. Finally, people hate the Duke Blue Devils because they are "taught how to flop" and "given every call."

I may be in the minority, but it is no longer that I can say that I understand why Duke is seen as Public Enemy No. 1 in college basketball fan's eyes. In sports, the villain is supposed to be a team or player who can never be counted out, who finds ways to win games they shouldn't, who is contending for national championships year in and year out. 

North Carolina, UConn, and Kansas all have stronger cases to why they should be Public Enemy No. 1 than Duke.

Beating Duke in the NCAA Tournament used to mean that one of the two or three biggest favorites to win it all was taken down. Don't get me wrong, there are an extremely limited number of schools or fan bases of schools that can say they wouldn't trade positions with what Duke over the past five years. After North Carolina, UConn, Florida, UCLA, Kansas, and perhaps Michigan State, there is probably not another case.

Since falling to the University of Connecticut on the day that I made my college choice during my senior year of high school, Duke has not reached an Elite Eight or Final Four. If Duke is going to get back to the level of competition they had during the late '90s and early 2000s, they must stop with all the reliance on the three-ball. 

It helped get Duke through tough times when Carlos Boozer was hurt in 2001, but was not responsible for actually winning that year's national title. If Duke can get back to their days of star big men, then they will likely be back on their way to everyone's doghouse.

When Indiana beat Duke in 2002, it was an unbelievable upset that was predicted by nearly nobody outside of the Hoosier State. Little did we know that the next time a Big Ten team beat Duke in the NCAA Tournament, as Michigan State did as a No. 5 seed in the Sweet Sixteen of 2005, it would be the last time that beating Duke actually meant what so many feel it still does today.