WASHINGTON ā After Grant Hill graduated from Duke in 1994, he often heard the same thing from fans who rooted against the Blue Devils during his college career. Some of them were even North Carolina fans.
āI always kind of got, āI hate Duke, but I liked you,ā ā Hill, a Hall of Famer, said Thursday as he prepared in his role as a CBS analyst for Fridayās Sweet 16 game between the top-seeded Blue Devils and fourth-seeded Virginia Tech at Capital One Arena.
Current star Zion Williamson will likely hear the same thing after he leaves Duke for the NBA after his freshman year, if he hasnāt heard it already.
Williamson is not only the best player in college, but heās also the most popular.
From his 28-point debut in Dukeās 34-point demolition of then-No. 2 Kentucky in November to the knee injury he suffered last month after blowing out his shoe in the first minute against the Tar Heels to his last-minute heroics Sunday to save the Blue Devils from a shocking Round of 32 elimination against Central Florida, Williamson is the biggest story in this yearās NCAA tournament.
If former Duke stars such as Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley, JJ Reddick and Grayson Allen were considered lightning rods for the vitriol directed at legendary coach Mike Krzyzewskiās teams, the 6-foot-7, 285-pound manchild known simply by his first name has become a beacon for longstanding Duke haters to put aside decades of disdain ā or worse.

Itās almost the way heās been marketed, the way he plays and the way the media has wrapped their arms around him, he almost transcends the game.
āItās almost the way heās been marketed, the way he plays and the way the media has wrapped their arms around him, he almost transcends the game,ā Hill said of Williamson. āInstead of watching what he does that might be controversial, youāll watch him to see his greatness.
āThatās all youāre being fed and you focus on the beauty of what he does and what his team does instead of a player taunting or a player doing something else. Thereās none of that. ⦠From the mediaās perspective, there wasnāt that villain. Itās all been positive.ā
Longtime college basketball columnist and best-selling author John Feinstein, a 1977 Duke graduate who has chronicled the programās journey from an Atlantic Coast Conference power to a national brand, said fans are a bit confused about how to relate to the Blue Devils these days.
Speaking of Dukeās 77-76 win over UCF on Sunday ā when the Knights, coached by former Blue Devils star Johnny Dawkins and led by Dawkinsā son, Aubrey, came within a tipped shot of beating the tournament favorite ā Feinstein said, āWhen that ball hung on the rim, people had mixed emotions.ā
āPart of them were saying, āWe want Duke to lose!ā and part of them were saying, āWe want Zion to play next week!ā ā Feinstein said. āI donāt think itās because anyoneās come to like Duke any more. They still hate Duke. They might like him, because heās unique. I donāt think they root for Duke.ā
Said Hill: āThereās still people who donāt like Duke ā like Carolina fans ā but itās almost this superhuman performance by this guy. What will be interesting is how people will feel about Duke next year, when the team will be very, very different. Will people have that same kind of excitement?ā
Hill was a key figure in helping Duke end its run of frustration. After reaching the Final Four four times in a five-year stretch and failing to win a title, the Blue Devils won the national championship during Hillās freshman and sophomore years in 1991 and 1992.
Along with getting the Blue Devils ā and their future Hall of Fame coach ā over the hump, Hill helped sway some of those whose rooting interests didnāt skew toward the Tar Heels or Maryland to want Duke to keep winning in March.
When Duke beat Kansas in the 1991 final ā after upsetting defending champion and unbeaten UNLV in the semifinals a year after the Runninā Rebels beat the Blue Devils by 30 in the final ā many college fans embraced Hill then as they do Williamson now.
āI was a 6-8 guy who could handle the ball and sometimes go above the rim. I wasnāt necessarily doing anything that hadnāt been done before,ā Hill said. āYou look at him, weāve never seen a guy this big move like that. That sort of captivates everybody.ā
Krzyzewskiās two associate head coaches, former Duke players Jon Scheyer and Nate James, have noticed a difference this season in the way fans of opposing teams view the Blue Devils.
āI think our players have a lot to do with it. Itās a fun group, very likable,ā said Scheyer, who played for Duke from 2006 through 2010.
āNot to say we havenāt had likable groups in the past, but itās been different. ⦠Youāve got people coming up to you and saying, āI never wanted to root for Duke but Iām rooting for Duke this year.ā ā
To a point.
āI think after the game Sunday, it came back out, a lot of people always looking forward to Duke losing,ā Scheyer said.
James, who played for the Blue Devils from 1996 through 2001 and has been on the staff since 2007-08, said there was a similar feeling around the team when it won the title in 2015, the year Allen was a freshman.
āThat group made the world say, āThese guys are a little differentā than what people typically thought what Duke players were,ā James said. āThey said it was not Duke-like, but it was because we still kicked everybody's butt.ā
Allen helped the Blue Devils return to their role as the college team everyone loved to hate with three tripping incidents the next two years. Krzyzewski didnāt help the situation by waiting until the third trip to take action and then turning an indefinite suspension into a one-game ban.
But it was short-lived, mostly because Duke wasnāt exactly Duke after falling to fifth and tied for fifth, respectively, in the ACC in 2015-16 and 2016-17. The Blue Devils not making it past the Elite Eight each of the past three years. But the arrival of Williamson and fellow star freshmen Cam Reddish and RJ Barrett put the target back on their collective back.
Except these Blue Devils are not like the Laettner-Hurley teams that griped at each other and often played with more efficiency than effusiveness. And there is not a single player who has evoked memories of Reddick.
āI think itās an usual team in that obviously they have tremendous talent and great players, but thereās a genuine authentic spirit that team has,ā Hill said. āAs Coach K always says, theyāre secure in who they are, but they genuinely like each other and they genuinely kind of play for one another, and thatās endearing. You just appreciate that, and thatās not always the case.ā
For their part, neither Krzyzewski nor Williamson seem too busy to notice this phenomenon.
While Krzyzewski said at his news conference Thursday that he doesnāt pay attention to fans booing or cheering his team, he acknowledged, āIf you like basketball, you should like these kids. Whether or not you like me, thatās another question.ā
As the media scrum surrounding Williamson in the teamās dressing room dispersed Thursday, the player who will likely win every national award and be the No. 1 pick in this yearās NBA draft was asked if he has a sense that fans were happy Duke has survived so they could see him play at least one more college game.
āI really wasnāt focused on all that. I was like, āI want to see the gym for practice.ā If that tip [by Central Florida] had rolled in, we would not be here right now,ā Williamson said.
Williamson said he and his teammates are staying away from social media, focused instead āon making each other better and winning a national championship.ā
But James recalled a recent photo on social media that spoke to how Williamson has changed the landscape of college basketball, even in that 11-mile space between the Duke and North Carolina campuses.
It was a picture of Williamson dunking on the Tar Heels during his teamās ACC title game victory.
Latest College Basketball
āThey panned the crowd and had it frozen on a Carolina fan cheering,ā James said.