Anyone who doesn't think the referees have given Duke the benefit of the doubt this year should remember the words of coach Mike Krzyzewski himself. In 1984, when Duke first began to show signs of future greatness, Krzyzewski publicly railed on ACC officiating, provlaiming to all that there was a double standard in the conference--and North Carolina was the sole beneficiary.

Fact is, the coach was right. Carolina, consistently among the greatest programs in college basketball, did get the benefit of the doubt back then, much to the chagrin of ABCers across the country. Krzyzewski's famous outcry won him a degree of national respect and, more than anything, established Duke as that intended to nto just compete with the North Carolina of the basketball, but to beat them.

Now it's Duke's turn to dominate. And like most dominant teams, it's time for the fans who don't love the Devils to hate them.

Krzyzewski is a brilliant coach. Expect him to field championship cailber teams for years to come. Expect Dick Vitale to predict Duke to win it all every year.

But in the future, he might not have a media darling like Shane Battier--one national writer called him the most-adored college player since Bill Bradley--to deflect away all possible negative attention.

In the future, "neutral" fans might not wait until the final game of the season to boo lustily at the referees while wondering why all the calls seem to go Duke's way.

And in the future, some hotshot young coach from a developing program might talk about a double standard in officiating that exists with Duke.

And like Coach K almost two decades before, he will be exactly right.