Duke Basketball: What would you do in a Blue Devil switcharoo?

Duke basketball has had some great successes over the years. They have also had some great failures. If you could change the fortunes of two teams with two players, how many more titles might the Blue Devils have actually won?

There is no denying that Duke basketball has had a starring role in the NCAA Tournament over the years. They have won more than any other team in the modern era and even their monumental losses are monumental March memories. Ask an average NCAA basketball fan what they know about the tournament histories of Mercer and Lehigh, and their invariable responses will most likely be, “They both beat Duke in the first round.”

While embarrassing and disappointing for everyone associated with the Duke basketball program, the 2012 team that lost to CJ McCollum and the Mountain Hawks wasn’t a real title contender anyway. I originally was thinking the same thing about that 2014 Duke basketball squad with Jabari Parker and Rodney Hood until I thought more about it, looked up the roster with the success they had and got increasingly more annoyed the more I read. No matter what the team looks like, Duke basketball is never, ever, supposed to lose in the first round and definitely not that squad.

It does occasionally happen though, like snowstorms in Florida or some other freak occurrence that makes you feel the world is slightly out of place while being celebrated like it’s Christmas Day for Duke haters. The hate tells a story in itself, but as fans of Duke, we’d rather rub a championship title in someone’s face than take solace in their jealousy.

Silver linings aside, with all the Duke re-airs on now that the real tournament has been cancelled, it brings up all those old reminiscences of glories past; but also the considerable list of what-ifs with the horrible, anguish-filled memories that those losses bring back. We, as a Duke basketball fan base, need to rise up against these slights to our Blue Devils and demand their immediate and prejudiced annihilation.

Since I was trying to mobilize the pro-Duke basketball forces, I naturally turned to twitter and came across the account of @M_Bulge19, a former Duke lacrosse player and avid fan as you might suspect. He must have been thinking the same thing I was since he put out a question about switching two Duke players from different teams to make each one better.

I immediately answered, and answered again, and answered another time. I kept coming up with new players and waffling on guys that I had already switched. If CBS and the NCAA are going to force such pain and resignation on us, I’m going to re-imagine those close calls with players who might have changed the outcomes. At least I can now escape to a place where Duke always wins. I know this sounds a lot like the real world, but even Duke basketball die-hards have some we wish we could have over again.