Recent events should not change passion for Duke basketball

Well, you can't say the last few weeks haven't been eventful.

I kind of wish the year had ended about three weeks ago. It would've been a hell of a lot easier. At that point when I thought of this column, the last journalistic piece I'll ever write, my feelings centered around one thing.

It was all about my passion for Duke athletics, a passion that began when I was nine years old and started following the men's basketball team simply because I liked the name.

Of course a month ago, I was coming off the most intense and exhilarating experience in all my years as a sports fanatic. Sitting 10 feet from the court of a Final Four watching the team I've loved for 13 years, I knew I'd never get that kind of incredible opportunity again.

A few days later, I realized part of the pain I felt was not just seeing Duke come so close to a national championship, but also facing the reality I'd never again get that chance. Of course it's a moment I wish I could live again and again, though I know I probably never will. I'm just lucky to have been able to experience it once.

And through it all, as my predecessor as sports editor said a year ago, I was always a fan before anything else. When it came to writing about the team and interviewing players in the locker room, I managed to put the passion aside, or at least I tried. But during the games, I was the same fan I had always been, the same one who missed one home game at Cameron in four years, the same one who pumped his fist and pounded the press table when Trajan Langdon hit a three-pointer with 1:43 left against UConn and the same one who gave himself a few minutes to cry quietly in the press area after we lost that night.

This all would have been such a perfect world had it ended like that. When I came back from Florida at the end of March, I was expecting the last month of the year to slowly fade away. Nothing, after all, could compare to the excitement of a Final Four, especially seeing one in person.

Of course since then, a lot has changed about Duke basketball. Read any major newspaper or magazine in the country, and they all talk about the last bastion finally giving in. Duke finally lost players early to the NBA.

Therein lies the point: Duke basketball has changed and it's time to move on. I could've spent this column giving my top-10 moments as sports editor or memories as a fan in Cameron, however not many people really care about that.

But everyone does care about Duke basketball. At Duke, there is nothing more revered than this team. The Med Center, a top-five U.S. News ranking, research discoveries-none of it even enters the shadow of Mike Krzyzewski and his players.

Thus the reason for the panic that has gripped campus the past month as speculation began and players followed it out the door. I've read several fans' websites and heard people talking over the past few weeks and I've been amazed with the reaction.

"We're going to be mediocre at best."

"We may even lose to Carolina."

"We'll never make it back to the Final Four again."

Yes, Duke does appear headed to be a very mortal team in the fall. That means a lot of close games, more losses and a bigger struggle come tournament time. There are no guarantees anymore.

That's reality. The face of college basketball has changed, and Duke finally moved along with it. We can sit around and bemoan that fact or move on. This past Duke season was magical until the end. That team, despite not winning a championship, was one of college basketball's best of the last half-decade. In today's terms, that means there are likely to be defections at the end of the season.

Duke basketball isn't the same as it was a month ago, and it never will be. In some people's minds, it's probably not as "special" anymore. That's okay; it's still one of the best.

That won't change, even though the program has. The quicker everyone adjusts, the better off we'll be. When I came to this school four years ago, the program was coming off its infamous 1995 season. You know what? It made it back. Now, the program's in a more dramatic predicament but still standing on firmer ground. Once again, it'll be fine.

In the end, Duke athletics, as Krzyzewski has said so often, is a passion. It's something you love, be it lying on the grass at historic Jack Coombs Field, watching the women's soccer team play at Fetzer Field with rain pouring and no umbrella, or seeing Takisha Jones make a last-second layup on Senior Day in Cameron with her mom watching from the stands.

For the past year, my job has brought me closer to the action than I ever could've imagined when I was back in fourth grade. Most of it has only deepened my feelings of passion for Duke athletics.

I've never been concerned about Duke somehow being snobbishly "above" other schools, as I know some feel we should be. So we've lost basketball players early to the NBA now just like everyone else. Why let it ruin a great thing?

As so many people have said, Duke should simply worry about being Duke. It's gotten us this far.

That, to me, is plenty good enough, and I hope that doesn't change for those who follow behind me.

Joel Israel, for this one last time, is a Trinity senior and sports editor of The Chronicle. He would like to thank the city of Dallas for hosting the Final Four in 1986 and bringing Duke into a local kid's life.