‘There’s plenty of room on our band wagon.’ Why this Duke hater picked the Blue Devils.

I hated Christian Laettner. Every time Bobby Hurley whined about a foul call I wanted to yell at him through the TV.

J.J. Reddick. Cherokee Parks. Grayson Allen. The Plumlee brothers. I couldn’t stand any them. My Duke hatred has been well documented when it comes time to fill out brackets in March.

So I can’t believe it, but for the first time, I picked Duke to win it all this year. I have to be honest, I didn’t like it.

It’s tough to admit it, but Duke was must-watch TV this year. Zion Williamson is incredible. There’s a reason LeBron James made a trip to Tobacco Road to watch Williamson in person. Even Barack Obama had to check him out.

Add R.J. Barrett and Duke has two of the best players in the country on the same team. How do you not pick them?

I knew I’d hear it from our local coaches who are longtime Duke supporters.

“You’ve finally come to your senses,” said Golden Valley athletic director Matt Thissen, who’s a longtime Duke supporter. “My first reaction is I’ve known you for a long time. You’ve always been a Duke hater. It took some time but you finally came around. There’s plenty of room on our bandwagon.”

I expect to see plenty of our local coaches and media members pick Duke when they submit their brackets for the 17th annual Marci Stenberg Bracket Challenge.

Once again, we’ve asked our area coaches to fill out their NCAA men’s basketball brackets to compete with current and former Sun-Star reporters and other media members.

Yes, we include Duke fans.

We’ll update the standings after each week of the tournament in the Sun-Star. The scoring is simple. We award one point for each win in the first round and points double each round. In our pool, we don’t count the play-in games so the coaches have until the start of the Thursday games to submit their brackets.

The pool is named after former longtime photographer Marci Stenberg because she used to love cheering on her bracket. She loved to see which coaches she finished ahead of in the standings.

There is no money on the line. Just bragging rights.

The Duke fans are already chirping.

“The problem is everyone is going to pick Duke,” said former Atwater coach Jason Boesch. “Even you. You finally picked them. That’s probably bad luck for me.”.

The defending champion is Golden Valley boys assistant coach Jerry Stillahn, who rode Villanova to the championship last year.

.On the bottom end of the standings was former Merced College coach Don Reid. The Blue Devils legend will try to bounce back this year with a big run from Virginia, who Reid picked to win it all. The Cavaliers have a lot to prove after being bounced in the first round last year, becoming the first No. 1 seed to lose its opening game.

As for my bracket, it’s pretty much chalk. I have the top two seeds in each region making the Elite Eight with Duke, North Carolina, Michigan and Tennessee reaching the Final Four.

I have Duke beating North Carolina in the championship game.

Wow, that really hurts to type that.

Good luck to all our participants.