You obviously haven't sat in a Duke classroom yourself.

Maybe our graduation rate would be higher if we had that great "graduate in 3 years program" that Puke does.

The one thing that will always tarnish my image of Gary is his lack of life leadership - assisting his kids, like Coach Friedgen does, to graduating and preparing for life. Now, not everyone will graduate, but 0%?

The people, media included, are cowards for not peppering him with questions about why he does not act like a mentor, rather than a hot-headed coach who's only concern for his kids is learning to move their feet on defense and set proper picks to effectively run the flex offense. The lack of scrutiny allows him to cash his millions guilt-free.

I love how Dukies have picked up this whole "not our rival" thing. They've been doing it the past few years. For a bunch of "smart" kids, they sure are dumb. The definition of rival is "a person or object competing for the same goal as another". Hummm...sounds like we're rivals to me. Now I'll agree, we aren't their arch-rival. That distinction belongs to UNC, but whatever.

You have to agree with the "Not our rival" chant. How can Duke have any rivalaries when the only decent program they have is Men's Basketball? Might as well call themselves Penn State.

I love Gary but that 0% thing is pretty tough to make excuses for. It's not like he's putting tons of kids into the NBA like Carolina or something.

Then again, I know personally that the University expends fortunes in academic facilities and personnel to assist their student-athletes. So much so that a student's failings are really theirs alone.

The 0% rate was an independant study that encompassed the early 2000's. Gary's response (which I agree with) is that some of his players may not have graduated, but they went on to have lucrative careers playing basketball either in the NBA or internationally. Whether you like it or not, players go to college for a chance to learn the game and make it professionally as a basketball player. That is their career choice. The study also did not take into account players like Taj Holden who came back in 2006 to get his degree. Four out of six of our seniors from last year graduated so gary's graduation rate will be well above the NCAA required rate.
Since 2000, no team has beaten Duke more than the Terps. So maybe they only want rivals that they don't lose to.

arent the kids supposed to be responsible. i'm sure gary could do more, but a lot of these kids leave right when the season is done. what can gary do about that? i remember the next day after the wilcox's last game, he was packing up. a lot of players dont even finish their senior year if they feel like the are getting drafted, DJ. can gary really stop them?

The whole idea of "rival" is another team that you fight hard with and are, for the most part, on the same level with. It's just a crack on MD to say they are not Duke's rivals. On another note though, MD always plays their best for Duke. Why not have that same intensity for other teams (American, etc.)? You just keep putting Duke on a pedestal when you gripe about how much you hate them, and "puke" and "dook." Just ignore them and maybe they would not get so much attention.

Funny that their band out the end of the game played the "Goodbye" song. Something that has been banned in UM.

The team that won the NCAA championship has four players in the NBA making 6.4 million a year. Two others play overseas. Our society is based on capitalism. Seems to me, the Maryland kids figured out the system pretty well.

If this were pre 1990 when basketball "student-athletes" for the most part were in college to get a degree, I'd have worried about the graduation rate. For the past 10 years and especially now in the 'one and done' era as some elite student-athletes become less student, top level college football and basketball have been more likely to leave early without graduating on time than stay. Money. As stated, the study didnt take into account those who came back to get degrees and the "what are they doing and making now" factor. The NCAA is an old stale institution and its supporters love the old ways of measuring success - in the classroom. Sorry kids, its not your grandfathers college student-athlete. It would be interesting to compile a spreadsheet of MD-Dook-UNC (and all NCAA schools) players since 2000 with Education completed, and probably more importantly from a "real life" view what theyre doing now AND what theyre making now. I'm sure that those I only wish I had had the choice to finish my degree or opt out early for a guaranteed multi-million dollar contract when I was 22! While I wish our players took the responsibility to get their degrees (GW and UM gave them the opportunity) I'm not that concerned. GW does a great deal to follow-up and keeps tabs on his players long after they leave MD. Dookies (or anyone else) who point out the "0% Grad Rate" (I did think "Fear the Classroom" was pretty creative...had to laugh) are only looking at one aspect of the whole picture - and the one aspect that makes thier basketball rival look bad. I'm sure if we dug a little deeper into the finer details of Dook or UNC basketball players classroom experiences, we'd find some less than shining examples of academic accomplishment.

Duke students have always been rude, crude & socially unattractive. They use to yell cruel things at Juan Dixon about his parents. Made you wanta cry for Juan. Come to think of it the lacrosse team yelled rude & cruel things at the house stripper. Only the family of duke students like duke students and their teams.
Dick 'Cookie'Craig