Will Blythe who authored the fabulous book on the UNC-Duke rivalry, To Hate Like This is to Be Happy Forever, has been featured on Deadspin the past two days discussing the big game. He gave a rather pessimistic preview yesterday which may have been a stab at reverse mojo. Today he offered up praise for Billy Packer, who for all the things he has said wrong over the past decades, became obsessed on the local game coverage last night over the fact that Duke had the losses during the 1995 season credited to professional scapegoat Pete Gaudet and not Mike Krzyzewski who was out with a back problem. By rule the head coach hired by the school is always the coach of record whether he is on the bench or not. Since Coach K was concerned that his program was being screwed with, the losses were magically transferred from him to Gaudet.
In the second half, just as the Tar Heels began to close on the Blue Devils, Packer started to obsess on-air about Duke's unseemly decision to credit the team's losses during the star-crossed season of 1995 to Krzyzewski's assistant Pete Gaudet. That was the season that Coach K took a powder, as it were, for his bad back and disappeared from public view like an actor going to rehab. "I think the losses should be credited to Krzyzewski," Packer ranted.
Just so you know the reason it came up at all is UNC, in their media guide or records in general I presume, credit the two losses against UNC in 1995 to Coach K. Duke officially says they belong to Gaudet and it is my understanding that a petition was made to the NCAA to have those losses removed which apparently occurred.
(Hat tip: Carolina March)