Duke Coach to Obama: Worry About the Economy, Not NCAA Picks

[RamboLiberal]

Barack Obama picked North Carolina to defeat Louisville for the NCAA championship, a relatively safe selection for a trailblazing president.

Obama spent part of Tuesday making his tournament picks for ESPN, which posted his completed bracket online Wednesday and showed the First Fan filling it out with Andy Katz on the noon edition of "Sportscenter."

Of course, the president's choice drew a reaction from the Tar Heels' most intense rival.

"Somebody said that we're not in President Obama's Final Four, and as much as I respect what he's doing, really, the economy is something that he should focus on, probably more than the brackets," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said from the Blue Devils' first-round site in Greensboro, N.C.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/19/duke-coach-obama-worry-economy-ncaa-picks/

To any DU Duke fans, sorry, but F' you Krzyzewski! Obama can multi-task and I like we have a president who can have a little fun and doesn't have to be in bed by 9. If he dissed your team then go out and prove it to him on the court!

On edit - Go Pittsburgh Panthers!

[Pirate Smile]

1. nevermind - sounds like the quote was clipped

[Jennicut]

2. Oh boy. So he is now not allowed any stress relievers like watching basketball?

Of course, Shrub consistently was at the Crawford ranch and basically twiddling his thumbs 24/7 while Cheney ran the country into the ground.

[ErinBerin84]

3. oh yes

I'm sure that he just AGONIZED over this and is very distracted....what a jerkoff comment.

[sharp_stick]

4. Ahh poor coach K

fuck you and your #2 seed

[Lance_Boyle]

5. he picked the heels without Lawson?

Not smart, O.

No way they make it past Oklahoma without Lawson. And no chance of Lawson coming back for more than 5 seconds before that turf toe takes him out of the rest of the tourney, nevermind the NBA draft.

[tekisui]

10. Watch and see.

Go Heels!

[Lance_Boyle]

21. I watched and saw 'em lose to Fla. St.

They are not so good without Lawson making things happen for them. Unless Danny Green and Wayne Ellington are both ON FIRE from the outside, they're not going past the Sweet Sixteen.

[tekisui]

30. They didn't lose by much.

We'll see. I am still feeling good about it.

[TeamJordan23]

14. I thought Lawson is only going to miss the 1st game. nm

[Lance_Boyle]

18. that would be a devastatingly bad move for Lawson

as it is now, he may not need surgical repair if he stays off it for a few months.

[Bake]

34. Damn shame about Lawson's injury!

He is an amazing b-baller! No sympathy for the Tarheels, of course, but I hate it for Lawson. They won't last two rounds without him.

President Obama should have picked Louisville! GO CARDS!

Bake

[Thrill]

6. Leave it to Fox to leave out important parts of the quote

He said he loved Obama and thinks he's going to be great. And If you watch the clip he actually wasn't saying it as a knock on Obama.

[RamboLiberal]

11. Sorry to coach K then - I'll say F' Faux then

[ErinBerin84]

13. ah, figures.

I didn't see the source until after I posted.


All of the sudden, Fox commercials/promos have been showing on MSNBC (for me at least), anyone else? It's annoying, and I hate how Bill O said "UNLIKE OTHER NETWORKS, we ROOT for NO ONE!" Right.

[MarjorieG]

7. I think that was 10:00, work was hard.

[high density]

8. Yeah, Obama spent a whole 10 minutes doing that?

I'm sure Obama's taken shits that have occupied more time.

[firedupdem]

9. He needs to worry about coaching and not who the President picks...

waaaaahhhh!

[treestar]

12. Oh for crying out loud

What a dope!

Obama not only deserves a little fun, he stays in tune with the culture. He is one of us much moreso than * was. He takes an interest and knows what is going on and doesn't act above it all and as though it doesn't exist.

He's just mad Obama didn't pick his team!

[dkf]

28. He's probably worried about his investments.

He should be concentrating on his coaching and not on his $.

[Kaylee]

15. Another reason to hate Duke.

:puke:

To any Duke fans, notice the state I am from. It's against the law to like Duke in the state of Maryland...nothing personal.

[uponit7771]

16. THIS WAS NOT MEANT AS A KNOCK AGAINST OBAMA, IT WAS SAID IN JEST

[Thrill]

19. Yup I posted that above. He was more complimentary to Obama than anything

.

[falcon97]

35. Was it? I dislike Coach K, but am willing

to give him the benefit of the doubt. I saw the comment on SportsCenter and took it to be a shot at Obama. I hope I'm wrong. Maybe he needs to work on his "straight man" tone as it obviously didn't come off that way to many....

[NatBurner]

17. lol

he sounds like a bitter palin fan

go tarheels!

[bigwillq]

20. Coach K is a jackass

Most sports fans in America fill out an NCAA bracket. Why shouldn't Obama?
Coack K is basically saying :Fuck You" to anyone out there that didn't pick Dooke.

[LaurenG]

22. Ha - silly Mike Krzyzewski - he can't multi task either huh. nt

[BeyondGeography]

23. Thing is, Mike, that business you're in really isn't too complicated

So don't worry about wasted time.

[madmom]

24. Because ya know cutting non-existing brush on a non-existing ranch is far

more important than say anything going on in the world during the b*sh reign of terror!

[Life Long Dem]

25. Damn right to say it lightly.

But what I won't say lightly is if the economy screws me over and all someone did was talk sports games.

[Botany]

26. out of context quote

the rest of Coach K's quotes were that "he loves that guy" and "he is outstanding" rough quotes

[LaurenG]

27. That's good to know -thanks for the clarification

I love the "guy" too!

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

29. Oh FFS!

C'mon people, it was quoted out of context and he was actually quite complimentary to the President. As some of you may know, I bleed Duke blue and I know that Coach K is not politically a liberal. However, ask any player who has played for him, for instance Grant Hill (an Obama supporter and progressive) and Reggie Love (Obama's personal assistant), and he will say nothing but good things about him as a person and coach.

The Emily Krzyzewski Family Life Center is an excellent facility that Coack K founded in his mother's memory. The center's mission is (pasted from its website, www.emilyk.org):

The Emily Krzyzewski Center is a tax-exempt nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. We are located less than a mile from downtown Durham, adjacent to the Duke University campus.

Cycles of poverty such as those found in our neighborhood and Durham's immigrant population often repeat from generation to generation. These cycles cannot be broken without the concerted effort of the broader community, as these children are at increased risk for low academic achievement and failure to capitalize on their vast potential.

At the Emily Krzyzewski Center, we are committed to breaking this cycle through carefully developed programs that focus on academic development, character, leadership and community outreach. We use a robust, metric-based approach to program design that focuses on impact and return on investment as it identifies and tests best practice options and secures delivery capability. We leverage proven resources to ensure efficient and effective implementation of results-oriented solutions that provide the maximum benefit to the students and families we serve. Our targeted approach offers an alternative that makes a significant positive impact on our community.

Despite his personal politics, there is no doubt that he has tried to do a lot of things for the Durham community considering he earns an impressive amount of money. On this point, Duke is a private institution and can pay its coaches however it wants. UConn, on the other hand, is not and I thought Coach Calhoun's reaction to questions about his salary was very inappropriate, but that opens up a wholly different Pandora's box (vis-a-vis how much should coaches be compensated at public institutions).

As to the NCAA, I would be very surprised if Carolina makes it to the Final Four and it has nothing to do with Lawson. It boils down to getting a team that can slow them down to a half-court game and defend well. Teams that have beaten Carolina were able to do it by slowing them down and creating defensive mistakes by Carolina. It would also help if the refs actually called Hansborough's wandering feet (this is not sour grapes; many an analyst have commented upon Tyler's propensity for taking one too many steps and not getting called for it).

[MiniMe]

31. Damn, let the man have some fun. He likes basketball.

[Kajsa]

32. This is easily misunderstood.

Our President plays basketball and I understand he's pretty good at it.

It relieves his stress and he needs that dealing with the major
FU he inherited from BushCo.

Without the release he would explode from the pressure.
Would you want his job?!?

Kkrzyzewski, this may be light hearted and meant in jest
but it sounds too much like the barrage of criticism Obama
gets everyday.

-- and this article comes from Fixed News- no surprise there.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

33. Makes me hate Duke even more! I hope they get their asses CRUSHED!

[ncgrits]

50. I love watching the Tar Heels win. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE watching Dook lose. eom

[TheFarseer]

36. it's not Obama's fault you can't get out of the sweet 16

Putting you in the Elite 8 is probably more credit that you deserve. They'll be lucky if they don't gag on Texas.

[GTO_fan]

37. LOL. It's like people keep posting, but they're not reading through the thread

Faux 'News' took the quote out of context. It was said in jest and Coach K was actually being complimentary to President.

[Blue_Tires]

38. even before all this, Coack K has always been a jagg-off

not that i have any love for the shitheels, either...

[peaches2003]

39. As a Duke alum I am livid with Coach K

I don't give a damn if he was taken out of context or not. I have emailed the President of the Univ. demanding an apology from Coach K to Duke alums and fans immediately. Even my Tarheel grad son who is a conservative Republican was appalled at K for saying anything political and personally likes that Obama is a regular guy no matter how much he disagrees with his policies.

Go Wake! K needs to take one on the chin tomorrow and go back to Durham to think about whether he wants to coach basketball or enter politics himself.

[GTO_fan]

42. It was said in jest. He actually complimented Obama.

Which wasn't included in the link.

[peaches2003]

49. Coach K has always mouthed off

about politics and he is most definetely a right wing conservative which as a citizen he is entitled to be. Was a big Bush man. He also is no dummy and knew very well what would get into the media. He represents the university with everything he says in public during basketball season and this was just plain inappropriate. After all, he was talking about a basketball tournament so he was speaking as a coach, not a private citizen.

[GTO_fan]

52. Yet, this is what he ALSO said...

the rest of Coach K's quotes were that "he loves that guy" and "he is outstanding" rough quotes

:from Botany

Not surprisingly, Faux didn't report this.

[Botany]

55. thanx

Somebody said that we're not in President Obama's Final Four," Krzyzewski said from the Blue Devils' first-round site in Greensboro, N.C.
"And as much as I respect what he's doing, really, the economy is something that he should focus on, probably more than the brackets."

The coach said, in referring to the president's picks, "Why would I care about that? I love the guy, and I think he's gonna be great."
-snip-

[40ozDonkey]

40. Coach K cries about it... Bush had almost 900 days off.

"Somebody said that we're not in President Obama's Final Four, and as much as I respect what he's doing, really, the economy is something that he should focus on, probably more than the brackets," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski told the Associated Press.

Or, in other words....

[ej510]

41. I fuckin hate Duke! I am a Pac-10 guy!

[40ozDonkey]

47. I think the Binghamton Bearcats just picked up 50 million new fans. n/t

[ej510]

51. I have hated Duke my entire life. I hate Notre Dame as well.

[GTO_fan]

43. Is this what we've come down to, people? Believing Fox News?

Is it any surprise they didn't show the whole story?

[Cha]

44. Get over yourself, Mike Krzyzewski..

Our Prez can multi-task. Does he even know how petty that makes him sound?

[Zynx]

45. Coach K is an arch-rightwinger.

Look it up.

[backwoodsbob]

54. GOD DAMNIT!!! HE SAID HE LOVES OBAMA!!!!

What the fuck is wrong with some of you?!?!

[peaches2003]

57. He hosted a fundraiser for Liddy Dole

Isn't that enough to show he probably isn't an Obama fan? He shouldn't have said anything, but he certainly knew the quote the media would use would be the economy/NCAA picks one. Probably added something nice about O remembering the flack and controversy he got from the Dole function. We were friends with Mike when we lived in NC and are loyal Duke alums, so it doesn't come easy to me to accuse him of mixing politics with basketball which is what he is supposed to be talking about.

[damonm]

46. WHY do I get the impression he wouldn't

have said a WORD if Duke was in Obama' FF bracket?

[ej510]

48. Watch the tournament games here

http://mmod.ncaa.com/

[onenote]

60. well, he wouldn't have been asked about not being in the FF if that was the case

so I guess it would be hard to argue with your point, wouldn't it?

[Jane Eyre]

53. Who cares what the coach at the University of NJ at Durham says?

Richard Nixon and Ken Starr both graduated from law school there. Nuff said.

[OKNancy]

56. full quote here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=8273500

[demo dutch]

58. Greensboro = very conservative

[onenote]

59. video here -- looks like good natured trash talking to me

I'm not a Duke fan, but this seems like good natured trash talking by a coach and the president. All in good fun and in the spirit of the competition. Coach K had a wry smile on his face when he made the comments.

As usual, however, its being overblown in the media and by some DUers who wouldn't bother to take the time to actually look for and watch the clip before forming an opinion about it.

http://duke.fandome.com/video/110462/Coach-K-On-President-Obamas-Bracket-Snub/