Duke Runs: 2022 D.O.B.

A superfan (Storm-Shadow) cheers on Blue Devils (basketball) as Coach K hopes this final-season will be media-age dye.

A fan-toast to the iconic Duke Blue Devils (college basketball) in what's Coach K's final-season, inspired by Blue Chips (Nick Nolte). 

DISCLAIMER: I have no 'official' ties to the celebrity-team references in this work of American college-sports fanfiction and intend this only to be a re-presentation of media-era distance. 

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The world of Western college sports had become reflective of civilization diaries and media-broadcasting excellence in this developed era of television-driven culture and markets. Clemson captured the men's American college soccer title in 2021 after the Coronavirus tribulation crippled the previous season. People wanted to 'rebound' in many fashions.

The greatness of sports marketing is in its ability to cast the social network as reflective of a fashion for consumerism-media and its highlighting of the appeal/demand of celebrity, endorsements, fashion, magazines, and journalism.

Nothing hit the scene in American college sports in the era of media-broadcasting like the iconic Duke Blue Devils men's college basketball team. Duke, a team in South Carolina, was not a prominent team in the past of the NCAA until the great Coach K took over the program and brought it to consistent 'Final Four' appearances in the late 1980s, culminating in the 1991 National Championship with a jaw-dropping upset of #1 UNLV in the semifinals, followed by a dynasty-run the next year (1992) which saw the Blue Devils triumph to an undefeated season, which included arguably the greatest college sports game in American/Western history, the 1992 Regional Finals in Philadelphia, when Duke downed the very mighty-upstart Kentucky Wildcats (thirsty for glory!) with a miraculous buzzer-beater. Duke became the unofficial 'standard' for media-era college athletics journalism and fanfare.

College sports is not like pro-sports. The incredible recruited/admitted talents in college basketball such as St. John's prodigy Felipe Lopez, may be touted as future celebrities but end up simply becoming college-level legends. These 'legends' of college-athletics nevertheless may show up for modern media-era college-sports (basketball) games, as fans in the stadium cheering on their teams or other teams for cameras and celebrating this media-age 'excellence' regarding the trumpeting of the 'idea' of sportsmanship and markets in Western civilization!

Amlan Satan ('Storm-Shadow') is a Duke Blue Devils 'superfan' who's followed and cheered on the Duke team since the early 1990s, when Duke lost a heartbreaking devastating loss to UNLV which preceded its jaw-dropping upset of the very-same team in the NCAA tournament semifinals just one year later. 'Storm-Shadow' (Amlan Satan) had become the Duke 'closet-fan' of modern times, cheering on the team(s) as they captured titles in 1991, 1992, 2001, 2010, and 2015 as well as cheering on the losing teams in the Final Four appearances in 1990, 1994, 2004 (etc.). Storm-Shadow is now cheering on the Duke 2022 season, as the Blue Devils hope to capture one final title for what will be the legendary final-season of legendary Coach K, the man who raised Duke to become men's college basketball folklore. Storm-Shadow believes that Duke has a great change in the media-lights for winning one last title for their beloved-retiring 'Coach K' this 2022 season in a pool which includes other great rival teams (UNC, Villanova, Arkansas, and Kansas).

This 2022 year, Qatar (Muslim country) will become the first Muslim nation to host the iconic World Cup soccer tournament which itself has created global pro-sports celebrities (Maradona, Pele, Baggio, Beckham). This is a time when Al-Jazeera (Muslim-TV) hopes to compete with Western-media/TV such as Bloomberg, ESPN, EWTN, BBC, NBC, and Nickelodeon. This is also a time when Western civilization is sifting through its own globalism-dilemmas such as sectarian woes between Catholics-Protestants in Northern Ireland (United Kingdom) and the Russo-Ukrainian tribulation (Eastern Europe). This casts the college-sports 'legend' of the mighty Duke Blue Devils in 2022 as a 'perfect' complement in Western/American media-broadcasting 'activity' for the upcoming Qatar World Cup (December 2022) which no doubt will be covered 'diligently' by new-prodigy/rival Muslim-media Al-Jazeera! It's a golden age of sports-media around Earth, folks.

“I get a group of people who are talented to commit to excellence and to work together as one. That’s where it starts. Different talents, same commitment" (Coach K).

STORM-SHADOW: This 2022 season, the final-year for legend 'Coach K' for Duke's Blue Devils, is a media-diadem for America.

With so much talent in this year's pool, it's already exciting that Duke doesn't have to worry about already-defeated #1 seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs or Michigan State and Texas-Tech (which Duke defeated already!) as it prepares to face some of its more media-lighted 'rivals' in NCAA men's basketball (i.e., UNC, Villanova, Arkansas, Kanas). Everyone likes to 'wager' on the NCAA 'March Madness' tourney-bracket(s), and we're all wondering (alongside the awesome superfan 'Storm-Shadow') whether this will be a 'champagne-ending' for Duke's Blue Devils. The tourney-bracket 'wagers' generates much hype for many office-places in the United States, after all, good folks!

STORM-SHADOW: Villanova will represent the City of Brotherly Love, and North Carolina is a long-rival; Duke's got motives.

It's true, folks. The idea that Duke will face long-time rival North Carolina (UNC) Tar-Heels in the 'Final Four' of the 2022 NCAA basketball tourney is an exciting one, given that this is a final-year 'dance' for legend Coach K. After all, it's UNC that's generated incredible media-lights during Duke's legendary span of titles, in the ACC, March Madness, and regular-season runs at #1 rankings. If you're not a Duke fan in United States, you're a fan of North Carolina (not South Carolina!), unlike Storm-Shadow (Amlan Satan), hehe.

STORM-SHADOW: If Duke loses to North Carolina in the Final-Four in Coach K's final run (this year), it'll be a rather lyric.

Fortunately, Duke Blue Devils boast a great squad this year which has the 'magic' to boast sudden spurts of organized zoning offensive coordination/choreography making runs to the basket and organized team-scoring rather swift and rotational, and it reminds Coach K of perhaps the fun-media teams of 1998 and 2004. They have 'what it takes' to win for Coach K one last time, and they've already made it to the Elite 8, which is just one 'leg' before the media-famed Final Four. Duke's been in the Final Four a whopping 16 times and 11 of them have come all since the late-80s, folks. They also boast a record-breaking 21 ACC (pre-tourney conference) championships and 19 ACC regular-season #1 titles. Of course, Storm-Shadow (like Coach K!) also boasts, "Duke's been #1 ranked in America so many times, no one really keeps count anymore...if you're fan of American college-sports (basketball!) television."

STORM-SHADOW: Honestly, man, who cares if Duke doesn't win in this final-year for Coach K, since they've already reached another Elite 8, which its own honor, since they've achieved this another amazing 'laurel' a whopping 22 times, second only to the likes of North Carolina; I watched the Blue Devils reach the title-game in 1994, which it lost to Arkansas (a rival-team this season!); reaching the Elite 8, which it's already done, folks, is its own 'diadem' of the team's media-history datebook(s).

Even if Duke can't grab this title-run for Coach K's final-season (or for its Western-media 'superfan' Storm-Shadow), one thing is for certain --- both 'Coach K' and 'Storm-Shadow' have attained in media-lights era a unique magic in Duke sports fanfare. That one 'thing' is fan-spirit(s) diameter.

You don't have to be a Duke alumnus to be a Blue Devils fan/groupie. In fact, Amlan Satan ('Storm-Shadow') is himself an Ivy League alumnus, not Duke alumnus. Coach K himself used to coach as an assistant under Bob Knight for Indiana Hoosiers. If this truly is a title-run time for Coach K's final season, Storm-Shadow will blog online, "There's nothing like college-sports media-lights in the United States...all thanks to the Blue Devils' 'brand' of youthful depression...and doughnuts!"

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"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)