Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net,

INDIANAPOLIS-For Duke, the most polarizing team in this Final Four, success hinges on the play of it’s too stars who are (you guessed it) love ‘em or hate ‘em guys- Junior Forward Kyle Singler and Senior Point Guard Jon Scheyer.

Duke fans love to talk about how everyone hates them because of their success, and the attention the program receives. Of course, they don’t bring up the “flopping” a lot of players do to draw charging fouls, all the favorable calls the team usually receives, preferential treatment by the World Wide Leader and the “private school” factor that turns off so many casual college basketball fans.

However, I’m at the point where Duke hatred seems like a waste of time, and a very tired cliche. (Or maybe I’ve just moved on to hating their bitter rival North Carolina more than any other team, so why bother having contempt for Duke? Besides Coach K. is extremely charming in person) Nevertheless, let’s move and get to know their star duo. We’ll start by profiling Singler, a projected 2011 second round NBA Draft pick.

The 6-9 forward from Oregon can play the three or the four, and is currently fifth all time at Duke in offensive rebounds. His game has been augmented by the fact he’s played together with the same core of players for several years:

“It’s definitely helped our team this season,”  Singler said. “We’ve won some close games because of the bond that we have. We’ve gone through a lot of experiences together. It’s more of a friendship. You’re willing to do extra to help the team win.”  Scheyer called him “the toughest player I’ve ever played with.”

And Coach Mike Kryzsewki talked about what makes Singler so special, even when he has his ups and downs.

“I think Kyle is a great player.  He’s not always gonna play great.  You know, a few games before that, Scheyer was 1-11 and we won.  In fact, he still played pretty well.  You can’t give knee-jerk reactions when a kid just doesn’t perform at a top level.  I mean, he’s trying to fight through it,” Coach K. said about Singler’s struggles in the last game.

“Kyle had two fouls in the first five minutes, and you tend not to be as aggressive as far as attacking the basket, going into the post.  You can get into a mode where you’re a little bit more conservative because, you know, on the court you’re a valuable asset even if it’s not at a hundred percent,” Kryzewski continued.

Northbrook, IL native (and potential late second round 2010 NBA Draft pick) Jon Scheyer is greatly unloved in his home area of Chicago for choosing to attend Duke over Illinois. That doesn’t seem like a very controversial decision at first, but when you consider the fact that he made his decision off the heels of Illinois’ best season ever in 2005 and his Head Coach at Glenbrook North, Dave Weber is the brother of Illinois’ leader Bruce Weber, you can see why he’s drawn some ire.

The 6-5 team captain moved over from shooting guard to point guard this season to help fill a void, and responded by having a unanimous all-conference, all-district and Wooden award finalist season. He holds the ACC single season record for minutes played in a season and he’s the second leading free throw shooter in Duke history.

Coach K talked about where Jon Scheyer ranks among the best leaders in Blue Devil history.

“He’s not just been a good leader; he’s been a beautiful young man to coach. I mean, Jon has never had a bad day where he hasn’t tried.  He has a perpetual great attitude.  That’s infectious with his teammates,” Coach K said.

“He’s been a 2,000 point scorer at Duke, while being very unselfish.  He’s been willing to accept any role, which I think is leading by example, whether it be coming off the bench at times as a younger player, or being an off guard, to now where he handles the ball.” Kryzsewski continued.

Scheyer talked about how this Duke team got to the Final Four despite suffering some tough seasons (by Duke standards) early in his career. “Being at this point and being able to look back, I don’t know if we’d be here without those moments, especially my freshman year,” Scheyer said.

Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net, an Upper Midwest sports webzine. He’s also a member of the Football Writers Association of America, the United States Basketball Writers Association and a sports writer for the Washington Times.com Communities and Walter Football.com

The last four days were no better than the first four of the tournament.  There were 12 games over the weekend and only three of them were what I would call good games.  Two of them involved Pitt, a team that underachieved the entire two weeks and the thid was a back and forth affair between Kansas and Michigan State on Friday night.

Michigan State came off their great game on Friday night to take part in one of the worst games I watched the in entire tournament on Sunday.  Not to take anything away from the Spartans who played great defense, but it was just difficult to watch.  This was almost entirely Louisville’s fault.  What a pathetic display of basketball they showed every time they had the ball.  Two passes around the perimeter and a contested three was apparently what they decided to go with on offense.  Gross.

The most hyped match-ups turned out to be some of the worst games as Syracuse got blown out by Oklahoma, who was run off the court by North Carolina, and  Duke was killed by Villanova in the other highly anticipated game.  Hey, at least with all these good teams, the Final Four should be great, right?  Nah, I think I’ll bad-mouth it and hope for the opposite effect again.

This is what I get for taking joy and celebrating the opposite of what March is all about.  Next year I’ll be back to being mad that the San Diego States, Creightons, and St. Marys of the world didn’t get in the tournament.  I’ll be looking for a Dayton t-shirt to wear for their game against Kansas, and this whiny complaining post will come a week earlier.

Well now he’s taken his team to the Final Four (rescuing my bracket, since I had the foresight to pick Nova in the round of 4).  In what was the best tournament game this year and possibly the best in the last few years, he didn’t let me down, taking the ball to the basket with time ticking away for a game-winner over Pitt.  Here’s the good stuff.