He Stars for Duke, but He’s Not Detested (Published 2010) (2024)

DURHAM, N.C. — As the most valuable player in the N.C.A.A.’s Final Four, co-captain of the defending national champion and a leading candidate for player of the year in 2010-11, Kyle Singler no doubt tops all college basketball players in magazine cover shots this fall.

Singler is the face of Duke, the No.1 men’s team in the country going into the season. Under ordinary circ*mstances, that would guarantee him a special vitriol reserved for those rare players who embody a program many fans love to hate.

And yet, at last glance, the “I hate Kyle Singler” Facebook pages have, at most, hundreds of followers. It is not hard to imagine the numbers Christian Laettner or J. J. Redick might have inspired had Facebook been around in their heydays at Duke.

“He’s just too good of a guy,” Coach Mike Krzyzewski said of Singler during a telephone interview. “He’s a guy’s guy. He’s a warrior.

“It’d be very hard to hate him.”

Then again, maybe Singler will not be able to avoid it this time around. As Singler embarks on his senior season and Duke opens against Princeton on Sunday at Cameron Indoor Stadium, the Blue Devils are no longer considered mere outside possibilities in the championship hunt, as they were a year ago.

They are the favorites, a new position for a team that did not face that level of expectation in recent seasons.

How well Singler and his teammates handle that focus from fans and foes will determine not only how much they are reviled, but also how far they go in the tournament this season.

“I’m not too worried about it,” Singler said in a telephone interview when asked about the pressure the team faces. “I’ve always have had high expectations as a player, always want to do well. In that regard, that hasn’t changed.”

But how do you top being the Final Four M.V.P. and winning a championship?

“You really can’t,” Singler said. “But you can do it again. And that’s, I think, topping it, to do it back to back.”

That may be one reason Singler, a forward who averaged 17.7 points and 7 rebounds a game last season, came back for his senior season.

Projected as a mid-to-late-first-round pick had he entered the draft, Singler passed up millions in the N.B.A. to return to Duke and hone his game.

“He wants to be really good,” Krzyzewski said. “He doesn’t just want to be a pro. He wants to be an outstanding basketball player, and part of that process, he knew, he would become better being here. I feel he’ll be drafted higher and he’ll be a better player and he’ll be a better pro right off the bat, which is very, very important when you go to that league.”

It is not insignificant that Singler will also walk away with a degree from Duke. His major is visual arts, and he recently designed the inside cover for a book about Duke’s championship season, “Worthy Champions: How Order Was Restored in the College Basketball Universe.”

It is enough to inspire yet another generation of Duke haters. But he worked only on the design and did not come up with that subtitle, Singler said.

“I’m not really that co*cky a basketball player, but I am very confident,” he said. “I just kind of feel like people get in trouble when they’re not themselves and they don’t act like who they really are as people and even as a basketball player.

“I’m not going to change as a basketball player,” he continued. “I’m going to act the same way I always acted, and I think people do respect that. I guess that might be a reason why I’m not that hated as a basketball player.”

Maybe it is just his looks. Even at 6 feet 8 inches, Singler hardly intimidates.

“You look at Kyle Singler and he looks like an angelic assassin,” said Bucky Waters, the longtime broadcaster and former Duke coach, who attends many games. “He looks like he’d be the lead singer in a choir. He’s just got this look, and yet inside of there burns just a tremendous competitive spirit.”

Apparently, Singler does not talk trash or swagger, either. He reserves his commentary for teammates, and indeed he has had to work at becoming more vocal as a leader this season.

Opponents will hear little from Singler during a game.

“He’s not a talker,” guard Nolan Smith, the other returning starter from last season’s championship team, said Friday as the team prepared for Princeton. “He just plays 40 minutes quietly, and he’s going to go at you.

“He’ll definitely be more of a target this year,” Smith continued. “People are saying he’s going to be the player of the year, and he obviously has that capability, so guys are going to go at him a lot harder, and nothing’s going to change with him. He’s going to stay who he is, stay quiet and just continue to kill people.”

If he wins another championship, Singler will go down as one of the most successful Duke players in the program’s storied history. Right alongside Laettner.

It is not hard to guess what the reaction to that will be on Facebook.