Florida: The New Duke?

My, let's just get out my racial story tongs here ... ah, there they are. Jeremy Fowler of the Orlando Sentinel asks an innocent enough, yet racially-focused, question today. I could rewrite that sentence any number of ways, actually, like "Jeremy Fowler walks over to the pile of dry tinder with a flamethrower," or "Jeremy Fowler walks and whistles while tossing a fresh stick of lit dynamite into a fireworks factory."

The story is based on a simple request to an editor who obviously hates Fowler and wants him fired greenlit this idea:

This project began as a simple suggestion to my editor: "Hey, Billy Donovan has signed a lot of white players over the years. Curious as to why. We should do a story on that."

The rest is an exercise is suggesting that Florida has become a sort of new Duke, a haven for white college basketball players where white basketball players "feel comfortable," even if it makes the team "less athletic." Did it have to do with their "whiteness"? Fowler won't say, but he says it, even though he says he wouldn't say it, which is funny given that he said it's not his call, and is basically saying it:

We all knew Florida's 2008-09 team lacked raw athleticism. Was that because the Gators started three white players? Maybe. Maybe not. That's not my judgment call, though the research might suggest it.

Fowler also suggests that the team doesn't dance as well as other teams, doesn't understand Tyler Perry movies, and likes country music more than other basketball squads. He didn't write that, but he probably thought it after typing that. Dan Werner is also quoted in the piece saying that less athletic "white" teams would run more Princeton-style offenses, just like that bastion of Caucasian basketball: um ... Georgetown. On second thought, let's just pretend this whole article never happened, shall we? Look! Cute animals AWWWWWW.

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