News-Record.com

Thanks for sharing this.

I was at the game but did not notice Coach K contributing to the removal of a fan (Coach Williams's son).

Some friends at work who watched the game on television asked me if I knew what Coach K was complaining about when he pointed toward the Carolina bench to the referees. I'm guessing that what you revealed may have been it.

If Coach Williams's son did nothing more than what you indicated, that seems rather tame an excuse to remove any fan compared to some of what goes on.

I was a huge Duke fan growing up and attended Coach K's basketball camp two summers as an enthusiastic but not overly talented player. He was great with the campers and even interacted personally and positively with individuals like me who had no potential ever to contribute to Duke's pursuit of national titles.

I ended up going to Carolina, and of course, my freshman year as a Tar Heel was the same year Duke won its first national title. I may have been the only Carolina undergraduate happy about that outcome.

Nowadays, I am one of the few fans who can be happy with either Carolina or Duke winning. I sometimes still find myself pulling for Duke (going back to my original roots), though I can appreciate a Carolina victory also. (A friend at work calls me Benedict Arnold for supporting Duke on any level since I graduated from Carolina.)

While I respect a lot of things about him as a person and a coach, I am not impressed with how much time Coach K spends arguing with referees. He sometimes spends more time complaining to the referees than coaching his own players. He no doubt influences the referees, at least subconsciously, but I think he sacrifices some important values, such as sportsmanship when he focuses so much time and effort on arguing with the referees.

And though I know other schools' fans can be as ugly and unmerciful as Duke fans have a reputation for being, Coach K has no room to complain about those fans unless he chooses to hold Duke's fans to the same high standards.

(Someone told me that some N.C. State fans made comments about Chris Paul's murdered grandfather on Sunday. While he deserves no sympathy for what he did to Julius Hodge, Paul nor anyone else deserves comments on that despicable a level. Have you heard anything about this? I heard about this second-hand from someone who had a friend who attended the N.C. State-Wake Forest game. I do not know if there is any validity to it.)

I'll have to check into the alleged grandfather remarks from State fans. I'm not touching that until it's verified.

As for what you probably saw K gesturing on TV, that was made toward the scorer's table. When Ewing picked up his 2nd foul just before halftime, K mock-clapped at the scorekeeper for not allowing DeMarcus Nelson to check into the game -- for Ewing -- at the previous whistle. The officials discussed it, causing that delay, and determined that Nelson hadn't gotten to where he was supposed to be in time.

An update on Scott Williams' ejection. He told the News & Observer that it was official Larry Rose, not Krzyzewski, that had him removed from his seat near the court. He admits he was riding the ref pretty hard. Roy's son did stay in the building to watch the rest of the game.

But did you get the sense from Roy's comments that Roy was blaming K for his son's dismissal?

Also, Andy Katz had in his reporr on ESPN that sources at Wake said that comments were made about Paul's grandfather.

He was clearly ticked, as he put it. But he didn't assign blame. Then again, he seemed to go along with the version in the New York Post, that implied Coach K had SW tossed. And when has the Post ever sensationalized a story or gotten it wrong?

As for the grandfather comments, seems a few eye-witnesses -- or is that ear-witnesses? -- who like to call in to radio shows say such comments were made, but they were isolated to a handful of knuckleheads. if that helps.