Back before this riotous season started -- before North Carolina became indistinguishable from North Carolina A&T; before strangers named Oregon, Pittsburgh and Wisconsin became league champions; before Nolan Richardson was bum-rushed -- you might remember my Duke Manifesto.

Not crazy about Duke

Forde Nothing against Duke, but ESPN.com's Pat Forde never thought the Blue Devils were going to repeat. Not today, and not last November when he came up with the following five reasons that the Dookies would go down: 1. It's hard 2. Curse of The General 3. Shane Battier doesn't live here anymore 4. Curse of The General II 5. Kentucky, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri and a Darkhorse To Be Named Later will have something to say about it

I was the killjoy at the coronation, the crank at Durham.com who refused to board the bandwagon. I declared that the Blue Devils would not repeat as national champions this season.

You'd think I burned the flag.

To some folks out there in the basketball oppressor class, dissing Duke was veritable heresy. The very concept of the Devils coming in second (or worse) was considered by some Dookies and Duke apologists to be an affront to the Cameron Crazies, Jason Williams and (cue the voice-over of angels singing on high) Coach K himself.

Five months later, I'm still sitting on the wrong side of Right-Thinking Americans Everywhere. I'll take the field and feel good about it.

Doubting the Devils doesn't seem as preposterous in March as it did in November -- unless, of course, the referees choke on their whistles and go Duke-blind like they did last year at the Final Four in Minneapolis, allowing Williams to use Jason Gardner's back as a luge sled, among other calls and non-calls.

There are at least seven reasons for this.

1) If Duke can lose to Florida State and Virginia, it surely can find someone capable of beating it in March. If Southern Cal can't get a payback for last year's East Regional loss, it'll come in the Final Four from one of these teams...

2) Maryland. Fear the Turtle? Most definitely. This is a team that knows Duke, understands Duke and (perhaps) might finally be ready to beat Duke when it counts most. Remember, the game in College Park this year wasn't close.

3) Kansas. Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk? I'm wavin' the wheat, baby. The nation's most accomplished offensive team could match the Dookies salvo for salvo, and doesn't resemble the Type A nerve-case Kansas teams that stumbled with No. 1 seeds four times in the 1990s. (Except for the guy on the bench, who looks familiar. The world doesn't need another Roy Williams cryfest in the round of 32, OK?)

4) Oklahoma. Boomer Sooner. Tough enough and athletic enough to compete with the Dookies, with superior depth.

5) Gonzaga. The Selection Committee delivers back massages to the Blue Devils and the back of its hand to the Zags. In a just world ...

	Forde thinks there are now seven reasons this scene won't be repeated next month.

6) The peril of the unknown. Forty minutes of winner-take-all can produce some amazing things, as previous Marches have shown. And fate has been especially unkind to every defending national champion of the last 28 seasons -- Christian Laettner's Blue Devils excepted, who only needed the most famous shot in college basketball history to repeat.

7) The Curse of the General. You might remember this pet theory I espoused back in October. Work with me here. Bob Knight was so miffed at losing in his last Final Four in '92 to former protégé Krzyzewski that he laid a hex on the Devils: No more titles while he was around to do something about it. Duke missed several times since then with great teams before breaking through last year ... while Knight was out of college basketball. Now that he's back -- and in the Dance, no less, while looking appreciably taller, leaner and meaner than Brian Dennehy -- the curse is back. ("Playing MY way is what GOT you here, Krzyzewski! No more titles for you!")

Now, I will freely admit that Duke remains talented. Duke remains tough. Duke remains Duke.

And there is nothing quite so wonderful as that. Just ask Duke.

Jason Williams is the national Player of the Year. I don't want to hear about Drew Gooden -- outstanding talent, but seems less apt to go for the jugular than Williams. I don't want to hear about Steve Logan -- a great player to be sure, but of course his stats are better than Williams'. He doesn't have to share shots with a Mike Dunleavy or a Carlos Boozer.

Krzyzewski is a brilliant recruiter and team-builder. Nobody in the business is better at getting marquee talent to mesh into a functioning unit. (Tubby Smith right now would give up his shoe contract money to get one-tenth of Duke's chemistry for his dysfunctional Kentucky team.)

Duke plays admirably loose and aggressive basketball, especially at the offensive end. It's a welcome and wonderful sight in today's basketball, where coaches hate letting a single possession go by without calling a play or gesturing everyone into position. (Prediction: the National Association of Basketball Coaches will someday file a request with the basketball rules committee asking for a 30-second timeout on every possession, to help micromanage every dribble and increase airtime for the Sideline Suits.)

Duke is utterly at home in the cauldron of attention and adulation that is the NCAA Tournament. Going to the Final Four will go to no one's head. This is in part because its fans spend the entire season congratulating themselves and the team on their Class, their Family Atmosphere, their Togetherness, and their Great Kids. ("Great Kids" is a phrase you will hear from Krzyzewski approximately 4 million times the next three weeks.) The Knights of the Round Table wish they were imbued with the virtues of the Dookies.

And of course the Blue Devils have the usual onslaught of Hamburger All-American talent coming in next year, in an attempt to extend their hegemony into Krzyzewski's dotage. By the time he's done, CBS will have us on a first-name basis with the grandkids. Fans will be given an address for sending doggie treats to the familly canines, Cameron and Defense (ugh).

That is, unless someone stands up and does the right thing this month. Stop the Madness, start the coup. Somebody must defeat the Duke.

Contrarians everywhere, unite.

Pat Forde of the Louisville Courier-Journal is a regular contributor to ESPN.com