Duke Basketball - The All-Time #1 Team in the Country

[Slyfox696]

No, I don't mean Duke is the best basketball program ever. It's like when you are kids, and you pick someone to be "all-time quarterback", the kid who will always be quarterback. That's what Duke is.

Is there any team in the country, in either college or professional sports which takes every team's best shot like Duke does? I'm watching Duke play Georgetown, and you can just tell that both the team and the fans are incredibly pumped up to play Duke. Hell, even President Barrack Obama is in attendance for this game. That's how big and how important it is when Duke University basketball comes calling at your place. It's not hard to understand why, when you have a team with 3 national titles in the last 20 years, and is a constant Top 10 team. Throw in the fact that Duke is more of an "upper-class" school, and it's easy to understand why they take everyone's best shot.

Is there any other team in sports which can claim that playing them is the highlight of another team's season? Or does Duke stand alone at the top of the mountain, destined to get the best game from every team they play.

 

[FromTheSouth]

I am not going to say that Duke doesn't get everyone's best shot. They should, because they are consistently good. I would argue that North Carolina gets the same treatment. It would be tough for me to pick between the two in this instance, but I would rank North Carolina slightly higher.

I feel that North Carolina is more associated with basketball than Duke. When I think Duke, I think college basketball, but when I think college basketball, I think North Carolina.

I don't think you could be wrong either way.

 

[G3]

I disagree. Hear me out, I am not a college sports fan but when it comes to Duke they are second to Carolina. I don't think Duke has won the NCAA tournoment as many times as Carolina,or, plays as good as Carolina. I live in North Carolina so college basketball is big here; it also seems like Carolina beats Duke more often than Duke beats Carolina.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

Blashphemy! Kentucky IS College basketball. Seven national titles. Playing in the most balanced conference outside of the Big East, and getting everyone's best game EVERY time we play them? Yea.

Duke's good, but not in the same league as Kentucky is. There have been down years in Kentucky basketball, and even then, the teams loved to pick our bones when we were slumping. We're most teams Super Bowl. To put it in persepctive, in the ACC, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Maryland, and Georgia Tech have all been to the Final Four recently. In the SEC, only Kentucky, Florida, and Mississippi State have been to either a Final Four or won a National Title in the past 15-20 years. It's more important for other SEC teams to beat us then, say, Maryland beating Duke. Most of the time, it's another game for them. When a team, say, Auburn beats us, that's their highlight. Period.

Kentucky's no doubt the All-Time # 1 team in the Country.

 

[Agent_Bond34]

I guess since we're making cases for other teams to be the all-time #1 team in college basketball history, then my post has to go to the UCLA Bruins.

11 national championships, most of any team in college basketball along with 18 Final Four appearances and numerous other NCAA tournament appearances to go with that.

UCLA is the #1 all-time team in college basketball history.