Duke Basketball Star Proudly Admits to Pranking UNC Fans
Duke basketball sophomore Kyle Filipowski has the look and personality of the prototypical Blue Devil to best irritate opposing fans, particularly those of the program eight miles down Tobacco Road.
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Plus, consider that the 7-foot forward is the reigning ACC Rookie of the Year and projected top weapon on a 2023-24 squad likely to be the preseason favorite to win the conference.
Moreover, first-year Duke basketball guard Caleb Foster referred to Filipowski as "Christian Laettner 2.0" in this week's season debut of Duke Blue Planet. The similarities are impossible to ignore, including that Filipowski's freshman numbers bear a resemblance to those of Laettner as a sophomore in 1989-90:
And in true Laettner fashion, rather than ignore what comes with being an easy-to-love-or-hate Blue Devil centerpiece, Filipowski seems to embrace it, using it as fuel, not to mention an occasional chuckle.
Even better, he sometimes goes as far as to encourage the disgust, unprompted on a random evening in early August. Case in point, on Thursday evening, the 19-year-old posted to X the following confession of having to commit a minor driving infraction (according to the state) whenever in sight of a UNC bumper sticker:
Kyle Filipowski is 2-0 against the Tar Heels. Thus far in his Blue Devil career, the archrivals haven't found an answer to containing him, as he averaged a double-double via 18.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per game across those two victories.
Maybe his horn-honking is just his way of reminding himself of that.
Either way, the responses to the above post suggest his antics are positively endearing to Duke basketball fans and pretty much just cringely annoying in the eyes of their UNC basketball counterparts.
It's safe to say Kyle Filipowski wouldn't have it any other way.
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