Why This Writer Was The Real Reason Duke Lost

Dear Duke fans,

I'm sorry.

I feel the need to apologize after the Blue Devils' loss tonight to Boston College. See, Tim Britton may have taken a lot of flak for his road ACC record recently, but I think I'm the champion of all-sports bad luck. I have now covered 10 men's games away from the Gothic Wonderland and have seen a grand total of one win: a nailbiter over Belmont in Washington, D.C. last March, and that was hardly a victorious night. Keep in mind that, aside from football, all of these teams were ranked at the time of these losses. The 1-9 record, broken down by sport:

Basketball (1-4)

Losses: at Wake Forest last February and against West Virginia in the second round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament, at Michigan and at BC in 2008-09.

Win: Against Belmont in the first round. And given the fact that this was a one-point win over a 15-seed, does it really even count? If Gerald Henderson doesn't make that coast-to-coast layup in the waning seconds, we're looking at a monumental upset.

Lacrosse (0-2)

Losses: at Georgetown last March (the same day as the West Virginia game. I rushed over to the Verizon Center immediately after this one--Duke's first loss of the year--was over, only to see the basketball team go cold and bow out to the Mountaineers), against Johns Hopkins in the Final Four. And in case you've forgotten, these were the Blue Devils' only losses of the year. The loss to the Blue Jays was particularly surprising, given that Duke had crushed them at home in the regular season.

So as much as Kyle Singler or Coach K will tell you that their team wasn't tough enough, or Gerald Henderson will say that he should've made shots down the stretch, I have a different explanation: I'm just bad luck.

The good news? I'm not scheduled for any more road games the rest of the season.

The bad news? NCAA Tournament assignments haven't been announced yet.