Written by John Mark Adkison
On Thursday, March 24, the top-seeded Duke Blue Devils fell from the heights of a great season when the Arizona Wildcats struck with a fury in the March Madness Sweet 16 game.
This was a game everyone expected Duke to win. Nearly all the brackets had the Blue Devils at least making it to the Elite Eight, and most had the team moving on to the Final Four. And yet, they were completely upset by the Arizona Wildcats, 93-77.But if you are going to call something March Madness, you have to leave room for something crazy to happen.
At the beginning of the game, everything was looking good for Duke.By halftime they were up by six points. Energized and ready for more, the team headed to the locker rooms for some halftime strategizing.
And then their head coach, Mike Krzyzewski,did something he had never done before: He broke one of his sacred game time traditions by speaking with the press at halftime.
“A coach’s responsibility, from the time we talk to our players in the locker room before the game, until we talk to them in the locker room after the game, is sacred for us and our team,” Krzyzewski once said about the tradition. “My responsibility is to my kids, to my team. You don’t owe anything to anyone else. That’s why I never do halftime interviews.”
Well, for some reason he decided to give an interview on his way to the locker rooms, during one of the biggest games of the season.
Once the Blue Devils and the Wildcats reentered the court, everything changed. Arizona got on a juggernaut scoring roll and quickly overcame Duke by scoring 55 points.
Obviously, Krzyzewski’s halftime interview did not perturb some cosmic sports deity to cause it to turn its back on the Blue Devils, but it is another one of those instances where for a minute we might really believe in sports superstitions.
Nearly any athlete you talk to will tell you about a strange pregame song he listens to or a certain morning routine she goes through. It may be deliberate or a subconscious habit.
While superstitions are interesting and make for good stories, they really do nothing to help you win. Black Eyed Peas songs, silky gym shorts and stretching your calves for seven sets of seven seconds have no influence on cosmic intervention. Instead, focus on keeping your mind, body and spirit in shape and working as a team, because that is one major reason why Arizona won.
