Five-time national champion Mike Krzyzewski showed up at Cameron on Saturday to support both Duke’s efforts against rival UNC and seniors like Jeremy Roach in their final home game.
What game between Duke and North Carolina would be complete without Coach K?
Legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski, who led Duke to five national titles across his four decades in Durham, sat courtside in Cameron Indoor once more on Saturday night.
Obviously, he was there to support his former team against their bitter rival, but given Saturday was the final game of the regular season, it doubled as senior night for Blue Devils like Jeremy Roach, who started his Duke career playing for Coach K.
The longtime Duke head coach hasn’t been a stranger since his retirement two years ago when he led the team to the Final Four in his last season, coming to support former star and current head coach Jon Scheyer a handful of times.
With Saturday’s blowout win over Virginia on home court, Jon Scheyer became the fastest Duke coach to reach 50 career wins.
Saturday’s blowout win over Virginia provided many positives for the Blue Devils. It kept them within reach of the ACC regular-season title. It gave them their first win over a tournament-caliber team without Caleb Foster.
The biggest milestone, however, was reached by head coach Jon Scheyer, who became the fastest Duke head coach to reach 50 career wins.
Scheyer only needed 65 games to reach the milestone, with a 50-15 record during his two years with the Blue Devils thus far. He led Duke to a 27-9 record a year ago, and his team is 23-6 so far this year.
For comparison, legendary head coach Mike Krzyzewski had a record of 27-30 through his first two seasons. It took Coach K 98 games to record his 50th win as Duke’s head coach.
Head Coach Jon Scheyer now has 50 career wins and is the fastest Duke men’s basketball head coach to reach that mark (50-15).
What is your memory of the last 10 minutes of Wisconsin’s National Championship loss to Duke?
There must be some Wisconsin basketball fans who still think about the final 10 minutes of the 2015 national championship and what could have been — or arguably what should have been.
I must admit it isn’t an everyday thought in my head. But there are moments when something sparks the memory of Grayson Allen suddenly remembering how to play basketball and single-handedly powering Duke to the title.
Tara VanDerveer of Stanford passed Coach K with 1,203 wins, the most Division I wins for any basketball coach, ever.
The Pac-12 is a dying conference. In the next college sports cycle, several current Pac-12 schools will be in the Big Ten Conference. Others will go to the Big 12. Oregon State and Washington State, technically Pac-12 schools, will play Mountain West opponents in football and West Coast Conference opponents in basketball. There isn’t much time left for Pac-12 schools, teams, coaches, and athletes to achieve Pac-12 milestones. One Stanford legend notched a big feat before Stanford leaves for the ACC in several months. Tara VanDerveer now stands alone.
VanDerveer scored her 1,203rd career Division I victory on Sunday afternoon when Stanford beat Oregon State, 65-56. VanDerveer passed Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski — Coach K — for the top spot on the all-time Division I basketball wins list.
VanDerveer has won three national championships at Stanford and reached 14 Final Fours. At the age of 70, she now has an achievement reflective of the marriage of her longevity and excellence.
Notable about this win: Stanford won without injured star Cameron Brink, who got hurt Friday against Oregon. VanDerveer had to make adjustments for this game and get an altered lineup ready to play against a good Oregon State team which is likely to make the NCAA Tournament.
In her record-breaking win, VanDerveer reminded everyone how great she is, a fitting tribute to a coach who has dotted her Is, crossed her Ts, minded her Ps and Qs, and who has now eclipsed Coach K.
Thankfully, the Pac-12 — not the ACC — was able to fully claim this special college basketball milestone at Stanford.
Yes, you read that right (in case you haven’t watched the very thrilling Season 2 of The Bear): Former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski is part of the plot.
… Tangentially.
Chef Cydney Adamu is trying to be a good leader in this season as she and Carmy Berzatto launch a new fine-dining establishment, so she’s reading Coach K’s Leading With The Heart. And while, in my mind, reading a book written by one of the greatest coaches of all time seems like a great idea, college hoops fans weren’t as happy (he was born in Chicago, for what it’s worth!):
Twitter reacts to Dean Smith and Roy Williams placement in the top ten college basketball coaches of all-time.
Twitter was in a frenzy Monday night after the NCAA March Madness account released its top 10 college basketball coaches of all time.
Instead of using a human to create the list, it turned to artificial intelligence, using the popular growing ChatGPT to generate the rankings. Unsurprisingly, this caused quite a reaction, with fans debating the placement of some of the coaches featured on the list.
UNC is the only school with two coaches in the top 10. Dean Smith is ranked fourth and Roy Williams sixth. The only other coach from the ACC is Mike Krzyzewski, who ranked second. UCLA’s John Wooden claimed the top spot.
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) May 22, 2023
Many argued whether Bob Knight was over Williams, while others wondered how Tom Izzo cracked the list, but Bill Self didn’t. The list caused quite a discussion as fans gave their opinion on the AI-generated list.
Let’s see how Twitter reacted to the top 10 college basketball coaches all-time ranking.
It wasn’t too long ago that the ACC was seen annually as the best and deepest conference in men’s college basketball. Heck, only a year ago North Carolina ended Coach K’s career as they eliminated Duke in the Final Four. This year has left a bit to be desired for the conference however and the latest NCAA Tournament projections from USA TODAY Sports reflect that.
Notre Dame certainly won’t be dancing as Irish fans know, but what about the rest of the ACC?
After North Carolina fell to North Carolina State this past weekend, the conference sees two fewer teams in the field of 68 than they did a week ago in USA TODAY Sports projection. Below are where they have each ACC team projected to play in the latest bracketology as well as how the biggest bubble teams appear as well as who gets the tournament’s number one seeds.
La legendaria carrera como entrenador de Mike Krzyzewski llegó a su fin cuando sus Duke Blue Devils perdieron ante los North Carolina Tar Heels, 81-77, en la Final Four en New Orleans. El juego final del Coach K fue uno genial con los dos programas …
La legendaria carrera como entrenador de Mike Krzyzewski llegó a su fin cuando sus Duke Blue Devils perdieron ante los North Carolina Tar Heels, 81-77, en la Final Four en New Orleans.
El juego final del Coach K fue uno genial con los dos programas históricos nivelados toda la noche hasta que North Carolina se logró alejar de Duke en los últimos momentos.
Cuando terminó el partido, los fans hicieron muchas bromas y memes de Coach K, lo que fue bastante divertido.
Pero llegó Nike, quienes pusieron un tuit/tributo muy extraño a Coach K que no fue el hit que Nike esperaba.
One of college basketball’s legendary figures closed out the final chapter of his career on Saturday night. After 42 seasons, coach Mike Krzyzewski’s run at Duke came to a close with an 81-77 loss to bitter rival North Carolina.
It was a disappointing end for a career that is practically unparalleled in the sport. In his time in Durham, Krzyzewski won five national championships, 15 ACC Tournaments and appeared in 13 Final Fours.
Naturally, social media was ablaze with Blue Devils fans and outsiders paying their respects to Krzyzewski after the end of his fantastic career. But one tweet from Nike Basketball… well, you could say it drew some attention.
Now, the folks at Nike make an interesting claim here. It’s quite the intriguing hypothesis.
However, after some consultation and intense deliberation with our fact-checkers at For The Win, we have determined that there is, in fact, no way to spell the word “championship” that includes the letter K.
Some sleuthy Twitter detectives seem to have arrived at the same conclusion.
Obviously, Nike knows how to spell the word “championship.” At least, I sure hope so. Regardless, judging by the ratio, this strange approach didn’t quite land. Maybe best to have left that one in the drafts.
On the other hand, the tweet got a lot of engagement, and I’m blogging about it right now. Hmm…
Welcome to Layup Lines, our daily NBA newsletter where we’ll prep you for a tip-off of tonight’s action, from what to watch to bets to make. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every weekday afternoon.
Today, more than ever, is basketball. To be honest, every day is basketball. We will make sure that is the case, at least, so long as you’re subscribed to Layup Lines.
If you’ve opted to receive these e-mails, you’re going to receive the most important basketball news and information. Alongside my esteemed For The Win colleagues Mike Sykes and Charles Curtis, we are going to curate a feed of daily updates for you to enjoy.
We think that basketball is a lot of fun and so this newsletter should be, too.
The Tip-Off
Highlighting some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
Since we last spoke, the Duke Blue Devils earned a place in the Final Four. Coach K’s accomplishments are outstanding, and in celebrating his recent victory, star freshman Paolo Banchero actually made him blush.
Our own Andy Nesbitt has more on why Banchero called him the GOAT:
“Coach K has now gone to the Final Four in five different decades, which is just insane, and this will be the 13th time he’s made it to the Final Four.
Right after the game he was being interviewed by Tracy Wolfson when two of his best players – Paolo Banchero and Wendell Moore – jumped in and shared a special moment with their coach.”
Banchero is projected at No. 3 overall in my latest NBA mock draft.
Hornets (+135) vs. Nuggets (-3.5, -170), O/U 223.5, 7 PM ET
(AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
Look at Nikola Jokic’s face. That’s the kind of face that I make when I watch both him and LaMelo Ball play basketball.
Call me crazy, but I’m going to jump at any opportunity I can to watch a former NBA MVP (who deserves a second trophy!) in Jokic face off against a potential future MVP in Ball. Is there any assurance that Ball will win an MVP award? There is no assurance of anything in this world! However, I’m confident Ball has as good of a chance to win the award one day as anyone.
This game can have a lot of scoring in it and I want to hammer the over!
Who’s in and out?
—Almost the entire Portland Trail Blazers and Oklahoma City Thunder rosters were listed on the injury report, which is longer than a CVS receipt.
— Boston’s Robert Williams III suffered a meniscus tear in his left knee and is out for several weeks.
— Celtics Wire’s Justin Quinn provides an update on stashed Boston guards Yam Madar and Yuhan Begarin.
So long, folks!
Gannett may earn revenue from Tipico for audience referrals to betting services. Tipico has no influence over nor are any such revenues in any way dependent on or linked to the newsrooms or news coverage. See Tipico.com for Terms and Conditions. 21+ only. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA).
