Duke Basketball: The Most Hated Player from Blue Devils' Biggest Rivals

All college basketball fans are different, but there is one fundamental rule when it comes to those who have a particular team they root for: You must hate the rivals. And in most cases, there's one particular player on those enemy teams who warrants additional hatred.

Those getting booed and yelled at on opposing teams usually treat such dislike as a badge of honor. They often encourage the attention because it means they're getting under the skin of their own rivals' fans. The energy that comes from such rancor fuels both sides in rivalries, and it is one of the many things that makes college basketball so great.

Duke has one certified, to-the-death rival in North Carolina, but it also has other teams that it regularly faces (or has in the past) that can also be considered rivals.

We've picked players from five opponents on the Blue Devils' 2015-16 schedule that Duke fans are most apt to throw their hate toward this season, as well as an explanation why they would garner the enmity over the rest of the players on those teams.

Kentucky: PG Tyler Ulis

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Kentucky isn't a regular fixture on Duke's schedule, but thanks to the Champions Classic event in Chicago, the teams are guaranteed to meet at least once every three seasons. The last meeting, in 2012, saw Duke pull out a 75-68 victory, and this year's game will again be a neutral-site affair Dec. 17 at the United Center.

This version of the Wildcats is different from the one that made the last two Final Fours and reached the national semifinals without a loss last season. But one of the holdovers from that group, Tyler Ulis, is someone for whom Duke fans should start practicing their taunts.

Ulis, a sophomore who is generously listed at 5'9", was a major nuisance to opponents when he was on the court last season. His small frame makes it easy for him to slice through the defense, either to take it to the hole or draw defenders for a dish-out, which enabled him to lead the team in assists despite playing only 23.8 minutes per game.

Ulis was also Kentucky's most efficient three-point shooter, hitting 42.9 percent, though he only took 77 in 37 games.

Louisville: SF Damion Lee

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One of the ACC's newest members, Louisville finished in fourth place last season in its first year of play. Duke beat the Cardinals 63-52 in Louisville in January in their only meeting. This winter, they'll play both at the KFC Yum! Center and in Durham.

There's not much of that Louisville team that's still around from a year ago, beyond Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino, but the Cardinals' talented crop of newcomers includes a graduate transfer who figures to be their most important player in 2015-16.

Damion Lee comes from Drexel, where last year he averaged 21.4 points per game on a bad team. The 6'6" swingman had five 30-point games and is expected to serve as Louisville's driving offensive force.

Duke hindered monster power forward Montrezl Harrell last season, taking him out of the game and thus removing Louisville's sizable crowd from the equation. Lee is the player Duke has to stifle this time, and games like the ones against the Blue Devils are the reason he made the move to the ACC.

North Carolina: PF Brice Johnson

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There's never a shortage of love lost between Duke and North Carolina, and it's fair to say that every player on the opposing roster is in a 12-way tie for most-hated person in the world. Recent Tar Heels alumni who bore the biggest brunt of discontent include Harrison Barnes, Vince Carter, Tyler Hansbrough, Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace—just the tip of the sizable hate-fueled iceberg.

Even the current UNC lineup has several players who Duke fans love to hate, including guard Marcus Paige and center Kennedy Meeks. But they pale in comparison to senior-to-be Brice Johnson, who last year found himself in a pair of notable altercations with Blue Devils players...or administrators.

First, there was the (somehow uncalled) flying kick by Duke's Justise Winslow to Johnson's groin area in the March 7 game at UNC. Then, six days later, when Carolina was playing Virginia in the ACC tournament semifinals, Johnson was inadvertently involved in another Tar Heel/Blue Devil dust-up while chasing after a loose ball.

Unable to slow his momentum, Johnson leaped over cameramen and sidestepped Virginia's cheerleaders but barreled into a table and wiped out Duke athletic director Kevin White.

Like Duke fans needed another reason to dislike a Tar Heel: taking out the AD is almost grounds for war.

North Carolina State: C BeeJay Anya

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During Duke's lone rough patch during its national title season in 2014-15, it went to North Carolina State and got run off the court by the Wolfpack in mid-January. The Blue Devils got their revenge two months later in the ACC tournament, but the memories of that first loss still lingered.

Particularly, how many times BeeJay Anya either swatted away a Duke shot or altered the track it could have been on by getting in the way.

Anya, a 6'9", 295-pound beast who only averaged 4.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game last season, had 14 points, six boards and four blocks in that January upset of Duke. The last of those rejections came with 1:22 left when he swatted away a layup attempt by Matt Jones to preserve a nine-point lead.

He also made 6-of-8 shots from the field, the only game all season that Anya scored in double-figures.

Virginia: SG Malcolm Brogdon

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We end with the reigning two-time ACC regular-season champions, a Virginia team that's become far more of a rival to Duke in that span than every before. The Blue Devils solved the Cavaliers' pack-line defense on the road last year in their only meeting, but it wasn't easy.

It also wasn't a walk in the park trying to deal with Malcolm Brogdon, Virginia's leading scorer and most consistent weapon. He had 17 points in that game en route to all-conference honors and All-American nods, and in 2013-14 he scored 23 points in Virginia's victory over Duke to take the ACC tournament title.

Brogdon is the main piece coming back for the Cavaliers, though this year their only meeting with Duke will come at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.