Not-So-Dumb Jocks

IT WILL BE HARD TO PERPETUATE DUMB-JOCK stereotypes if universities like Duke and Stanford, among America’s brainiest, keep grabbing trophies. Duke became the first team since UCLA in the early 1970s to repeat as champions in the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s men’s basketball tournament. A day earlier, the women’s team from Stanford won its second NCAA title in three years.

Led by Bobby Hurley and Christian Laettner, Duke flattened a young Michigan squad, 71-51. The team’s performance testifies to the skill of coach Mike Krzyzewski, who has compiled a 295-110 record in the ncaa tournament since arriving at Duke in 1981. At Stanford, early-season conditioning with a track coach gave the women’s team the legs to run away from Western Kentucky in the final, 78-62. Like Duke, Stanford is coached by one of the game’s best strategists, Tara VanDerveer, who has a 16-3 postseason record. The dominance of two research-oriented universities is rare in big-time college sports. Will it rehabilitate the scholar-athlete ideal?