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I don’t know if you’ve heard about this or not but this is going to be Mike Krzyzewski’s final season coaching basketball at Duke University, which is something he announced at an incredibly awkward press conference last June.
Coach K has had a legendary career at Duke, winning five national championships and going to 12 Final Fours since taking the reigns of the program in 1980. He has been the face of Duke, and arguably all of college basketball, for many years, which has been more than an impressive run.
But yeah, his farewell tour is going to be super annoying.
The tour kicked off last night at Madison Square Garden where Duke beat Kentucky in the Champions Classic. The Blue Devils looked really good and should be contenders again this year.
Coach K was celebrated at halftime of the first game last night at MSG and then the announcers during the Duke game made sure to let us know that this was a special night and special season for a special coach who deserves all of our love and praise over the next five months.
At halftime of the Duke game a long video of John Calipari, Tom Izzo, and Bill Self talking on a zoom call about Coach K’s impact on the game played over MSG’s in-house video screens.
These tributes are likely going to go on all season long and it’s going to be a lot.
Duke has long been the enemy of all college hoops fans who didn’t go to Duke and now they’re all going to have to hear over and over again about this being Coach K’s final season and how he’s a god and how we’re all lucky to have experienced his time leading the Blue Devils. I’m guessing those fans who don’t like Duke are not going to enjoy that very much.
I’m also guessing we won’t hear much about the time he chewed out a reporter from the student paper, but whatever.
Coach K’s farewell tour is going to get a lot of attention partly because college hoops isn’t what it once was. Unfortunately, the coaches have become the stars over the years because the good players rightfully leave for the NBA as soon as they are ready to go and it’s tough for casual fans to enjoy college hoops like they did in the past.
I’ve never understood why college coaches are so beloved because it seems like for years they’ve made a lot of money thanks to kids who couldn’t get paid for all the money they brought in but we live in a country where people really care about colleges they used to go to or grew up rooting for so these coaches become larger than life figures. College sports are just very weird to me but thankfully now the kids can make some money off their names, too.
Get ready for a very long Coach K farewell tour, everyone. It’s gonna be something.
Quick hits: NFL midseason power rankings… Fantasy football studs and duds… NFL MVP bets.
– Charles McDonald has his midseason NFL power rankings, which has a team from the NFC West in the No. 1 spot.
– Charles Curtis has his Week 10 fantasy football studs, duds, and sleepers.
– Christian D’Andrea has 3 sneaky NFL MVP bets that could pay off.
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