WASHINGTON - It's one thing to hate Duke. Even Mike Krzyzewski admitted, the day before yesterday's West Regional second-round game at Verizon Center, that he couldn't remember the last time the crowd at any arena besides Cameron Indoor Stadium was on his team's side.
The pro-Duke contingent was outnumbered again yesterday when the Blue Devils faced West Virginia; it surely was the same when America tuned in on CBS, and you have to figure it wasn't because everyone was cozying up to Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins.
But there's a problem right now with feeding that segment of the sports fans who love rooting against Goliath, who hunger to stick it to The Man. By any objective measure, Duke hasn't been The Man for a while. Like the New York Yankees and Notre Dame football, Duke men's basketball has hit a skid and hasn't steered out of it yet.
In the gloomy minutes after the Blue Devils' latest early elimination, 73-67 to the seventh-seeded Mountaineers, Krzyzewski wasn't willing to acknowledge as much, continuing to say Duke had "a great year."
Well, "great years" at Duke end with the nets being cut down on the last night of the season, with "One Shining Moment" oozing from the TV speakers. Or, at least, they end with the Devils showing up there and getting a domed stadium full of fans adopting their opponent as their own.
This, however, means that Duke hasn't reached the Final Four in four years, the second-longest drought of Krzyzewski's career. It's been seven years since they won their latest national championship and since they've appeared in the final. And it's the second straight time they've been bounced before the Sweet 16 - although they lasted one round longer than last year, when Virginia Commonwealth briefly became America's Team after a first-round knockout in Buffalo.
Certain Atlantic Coast Conference opponents in this region would kill for a "skid" like that. But that's not what Duke is used to.
And while Coach K might be able to play that off in front of the cameras, his players can't.
"When you think of Duke, you think of winning, and you always think of Duke winning championships," said senior DeMarcus Nelson, one of the most celebrated recruits of his class. But he's also one of their few signature players who stayed four years and never reached a Final Four, and his final game was horrendous: six points, 2-for-11 shooting, three fouls, two turnovers, and a feast at both ends for West Virginia guard Joe Mazzulla.
That was why Nelson paused several times before continuing his thought. "This stings a lot, because everybody's mind-set is winning. We had a great year, but today, West Virginia was better than us, and that doesn't sit well with us."
It's now out of Nelson's hands, though - and in the hands of, among others, two players who will be juniors and relied upon heavily next season.
"I've always thought of going to Final Fours," Jon Scheyer said, "and I think that everybody in this locker room has, and we've learned how hard this tournament is, and we can't take anything for granted."
Gerald Henderson, whose late layup against Belmont saved Duke from the same fate as the year before, said: "We have to create our own legacy. We have to create our own dynasty. Nothing is really given to you when you come here. You have to earn it ourselves, and we've learned it the last two years."
If that sounds as if the program is suffering from a mild case of entitlement, then it sounds like that from here, too.
But that entitlement isn't hard to diagnose - and it's because of this important distinction: The NCAA selection committee considers this an upset, and a big one, as Duke is the highest-seeded team to go down so far. But that seed, No. 2, seemed artificially high on Selection Sunday, it seemed more overblown when Belmont took the Blue Devils to the final buzzer in Round 1, and it came off as downright fraudulent yesterday.
Duke was good, very good in fact - but not that good. Just as Virginia Commonwealth did last year, West Virginia exposed every Blue Devils weakness. Key numbers: out-rebounded 19-7 on the offensive glass, 0-for-their-first-11 three-pointers in the second half, 12-for-20 at the line in the second half.
Which raises the obvious question: What about next season?
"Duke is going to be Duke," Nelson replied.
That doesn't mean what it used to anymore.
david.steele@baltsun.com
Listen to David Steele on Wednesdays at 9 a.m. on WNST (1570 AM).
David Steele -- Points after
One can only hope there will be enough money and resources left for the federal government to investigate the breaches in the passport information on the three presidential candidates, once it's done pursuing Barry Bonds for possibly lying about using "the clear."
If you ever believed that winning a national championship guarantees anything for that coach in future seasons, ask how Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Calhoun, Jim Boeheim, Billy Donovan and, yes, Gary Williams feel about that. That covers six of the past seven titles, and all either are done in this year's NCAA tournament or never got in.
Meanwhile, if Randy Monroe's and Milan Brown's phones aren't ringing soon, then athletic directors are more short-sighted than they should be.
Throw Todd Bozeman's name in there, too, but not until this time next year.