How Duke University is Hurting College Basketball and How to Stop it

Does anyone remember the good old days when college basketball was a wonderful spectator sport? Every now and then we are treated to replays of classic NCAA games, such as the 1982 UNC-Georgetown battle between Patrick Ewing and James Worthy, the N.C. State miracle win over Houston the following year or the equally shocking Villanova upset of Georgetown two seasons later.

Ironically, it was during these same golden years that a monster was being unleashed. As we watched these wonderful games of nonstop excitement, a young, opportunistic coach by the name of Michael Krzyzewski was developing a system for manipulating the rules by manufacturing fouls -- lots and lots of fouls -- through cheap, dishonest tactics.

Two of Coach K's strategies have evolved and flourished to the point of making pure mockery of the college game. One involves jumping into opposing players' paths to create collisions and offensive foul calls. When done by Duke, it matters not whether the defender arrives a mere split second or even simultaneously with the opponent. Often times, the Duke defender has not even established position, but, rather, is sliding in front of the opponent as the player is in mid-air. With rare exception the result is either an offensive foul or, at best for the opposition, a no call. Rarely seen during the glory years of college basketball, the average Duke game is littered with flying bodies as Duke players have been programmed to create contact at every opportunity.

As teams adjusted to this tactic and learned to avoid the constant step-ins, Coach K decided to take the integrity of the game to new depths by developing a secondary, fall-back (pardon the pun) strategy. It involves simply flopping over as if contact did occur. An infamous you tube video clip captures Greg Paulus's execution of this technique during Duke's first round tournament loss to VCU last season. A more recent clip shows Duke players flopping all over the court throughout the Clemson game, usually with little or no actual contact.

In recent years, Duke players have expanded their fraud by flopping on the offensive end of the court. JJ Redick introduced us to this maneuver in a 2005 game against arch rival UNC as he took a mid-range jumpshot, twisted and fell to the court, despite being untouched. This particular farce is also captured on you tube for interested observers. Today, the average Duke game brings five or six occasions when a player, usually Paulus or Jon Scheyer, takes a seat after launching a three point shot if a defender is anywhere near the point of release. Again, the goal, which is usually accomplished, is to pick up an additional point via free throw, while simultaneously handicapping the opponent with an underserved foul call.

Sadly for Duke, there is no way to sugar coat this fraudulent strategy. It is, quite simply, dirty basketball, cheating at its simplest form. It is in no way distinguishable from a batter stepping into a pitch so that he can be plunked and gain a free pass to first base. But it is far worse in effect. The strategy brings Duke underserved points, while shaving points from the opposition. Worse still, every one of these staged flops brings an opposing player twenty percent of the way to disqualification.

Fans across the nation are infuriated by this style of play, and understandably so. It is not basketball. It pollutes the game by turning it into a nonstop spectacle of Duke players dropping all over the court like gnats from a street light. Many times, the Duke player adds melodramatic shrieks in an effort to embellish the stage act. But, for reasons unknown, game officials regularly reward this nonsense.

Admittedly, Duke does not hold an exclusive franchise on this style of play. Tit for tat is human nature, and many schools have attempted to return the favor, at least with respect to step-ins. But rarely do we see other schools employing the fraudulent flop method.

At any rate, for those of us who care about concepts like integrity, honesty, and similar trite notions of yesteryear, it is high time for the travesty to end. What follows is a list of approaches that will help the game return to a time when games are won by superior basketball players, rather than by shameless con artists.

1. Enforce the rule. How is this for a novel concept? Call charges only when an offensive player actually charges into a player with established defensive position. It is so hard to believe that this very subject is supposed to have been a recent point of emphasis for NCAA officials. The following is taken straight from the NCAA rulebook for 2003-04 season:

"The committee is also concerned with the defensive player who fails to attain legal guarding position and, consequently, impedes or blocks the progress of an offensive player going to the basket. When a defensive player attempts to draw a charge, but establishes defensive position late, he shall be penalized for a block."

Sounds great in theory, but can we please put this into practice?

2. Eliminate the charge from a player's personal foul total. It is bad enough that a team loses a basket and possession of the ball by this dirty play. But to affirmatively penalize the victim of the farce by simultaneously assessing one of his five allotted fouls is a bit too much to take. If we are going to allow players to get away with this grossly dishonest "play," fine. But let's at least limit the resulting injustice.

3. Assess a technical foul for clearly staged flops. As the rules are currently enforced, there is no disincentive for a player to flop. Just hit the deck and listen for the whistle. If none comes, so what? No foul, no harm you might say. This is why Greg Paulus did not hesitate to hit the floor when he was beaten on a fastbreak by VCU. It's why Paulus and Jon Scheyer routinely sit back on their duffs after shooting an outside shot when a defender comes anywhere close to their follow throughs.

Well, enough is enough. It's bad enough that we must watch this garbage after the slightest of contact. When players flop after no contact whatsoever, or after any de minimis brush that, in the official's good judgment, is a clearly fraudulent overreaction, a technical foul should be whistled at once.

4. Video review. No doubt critics will oppose this suggestion on grounds that it would slow the game too much. But think about it - there's a stoppage in play whenever a foul is called anyway. A quick look at the monitor will easily reveal miscalls. How many times do game announcers, after a quick replay, comment on obvious flops? At a minimum, review should occur in two situations: whenever two floor officials give conflicting calls, which is not an infrequent occurrence, and when a coach specifically asks for review, much like the current NFL challenge system.

The above are mere suggestions. Better minds may have better ideas. But, please, for the love of the game, let's do something about this out of control problem.