Tag: Mike Krzyzewski

‘We should have been up more’: Coach K reacts to Elite Eight loss to NC State

“We should be up by double digits,” legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said about the Blue Devils’ six-point halftime lead over NC State last Sunday.

When looking back at Duke’s Elite Eight loss to NC State last Sunday, the easy issues to find came in the second half. When talking about the game on Sirius XM earlier this week, legendary Blue Devils Mike Krzyzewski said the problem came earlier than that.

The five-time national champion said the Blue Devils, who took a 27-21 lead into halftime, should have been up by double-digits at the halfway point.

“I felt we should have been up more,” Krzyzewski said.

Coach K pointed out that, while Duke’s 30.8% shooting percentage in the first half reflected the Wolfpack’s defensive prowess, the Blue Devils were still a perfect nine-for-nine from the free-throw line.

“The thing I worried about was (NC State guard DJ) Horne,” he added. “He’s been a hot player and he didn’t hit anything…But then in the second half, they continued to play really good defense and their offense exploded.”

Sure enough, NC State outscored the Blue Devils 55-37 over the final 20 minutes.

“They outplayed us in the second half,” Coach K said simply.

Jeremy Roach’s career at Cameron Indoor Stadium in photos

Take a trip down memory lane with the best photos from Jeremy Roach’s four-year career at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Few Duke players have been as integral to Duke’s recent history as Jeremy Roach.

The senior guard and the last remaining starter from the Mike Krzyzewski era was honored during senior night on Saturday, his last home game wearing a Blue Devils jersey.

The 6-foot-2 Virginia native helped lead Duke to a Final Four appearance two seasons ago, and in his final year, he’s shooting 44.2% from beyond the arc and averaging 14.3 points per game.

He finished his final regular season with 1,408 career points, 35th on Duke’s all-time scoring list with a full postseason ahead of him.

Take a trip down memory lane with the best photos from Roach’s career at Cameron Indoor Stadium, where he shared a locker room with some of the most recognizable figures in the program while becoming one himself.

Coach K attends North Carolina game, Roach’s senior night

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.

Roach embraced his former coach and Krzyzewski’s wife as he was honored before the game.

Roach is the final Duke player who started during the Krzyzewski era, bringing Coach K’s four-decade tenure to a final completion.

Jon Scheyer becomes fastest Duke coach to 50 wins

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.

The win over the Cavaliers also improved Duke’s home record to 31-2 under Scheyer’s two-year run.

Blue Devils mourn the passing of Duke Athletics Hall of Famer Lefty Driesell

Former Blue Devil basketball player and legendary collegiate coach Lefty Driesell passed away on Saturday. He was 92.

Duke Athletics Hall of Famer and former Blue Devil basketball player Charles “Lefty” Driesell passed away at the age of 92 on Saturday.

Driesell, who graduated from Duke in 1954, played for two seasons with the Blue Devils. He averaged 4.0 points per game as a player, but his biggest contributions to college basketball came as a coach.

Across 41 seasons on the sidelines, Driesell coached for Davidson, Maryland, James Madison, and Georgia State. He made his biggest imprint with the Terrapins, where he spent 17 seasons from 1970-86 and won 348 games. He finished his four-decade coaching career in 2003 with a 786-394 all-time record, and he was named the ACC Coach of the Year twice (1975, 1980).

Driesell still ranks 15th on the career D-I coaching wins list.

Duke released a statement on Driesell’s passing with comments from former coach Mike Krzyzewski and current head coach Jon Scheyer.

“He lit up every room he walked into, and I loved any time I was able to spend with him,” Krzyzewski said. “Lefty was the ultimate winner.”

“I had the privilege of interacting with Lefty several times and he was always so down-to-earth and relatable,” Scheyer said. “Any time with Lefty was thoroughly enjoyable. We were blessed he was with us for so long.”

Driesell was inducted into the Duke Athletics Hall of Fame in 1993, and he was a member of the 2018 class in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

How did Duke finish the regular season during their five championship runs?

The Duke men’s basketball team has won five national championships. Here’s how those five regular seasons went.

Duke men’s basketball is one of the esteemed college programs only measured by its trophy case.

After all, regular-season wins and conference tournament titles are nice, but once you’ve won five national championships, it’s hard for much else to feel like a successful season.

Those expectations can be crushing, especially if you apply them to each game of a regular season. However, even the five eternal teams in Blue Devils program lore weren’t perfect from start to finish over their regular seasons, even if most of them were pretty great.

Here’s a look back at how Duke finished each of the five regular seasons before it cut down the nets.

WBB Recap: Slow start costs Oregon a possible upset on The Farm

After falling down 20-0, the Oregon Ducks women’s basketball team plays No. 8 Stanford almost even on the road.

If only they could just erase those first six minutes.

The Oregon Ducks women’s basketball team fell down 20-0 to No. 8 Stanford on the road and although they made a valiant effort the rest of the way, the Cardinal came away with an 88-63 win.

It was a historic victory for Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer as she collected win No. 1,202, which ties her with former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski for all-time wins in college basketball.

For Oregon, however, it was just another loss down on The Farm, a place the Ducks have won just three times in their history. They fell to 11-8 overall and 2-4 in Pac-12 play.

The game was over in that initial 20-0 run, but then Stanford’s All-American Cameron Brink injured her knee and didn’t come back rest on the night. With Stanford’s post player out, the Ducks went on a 15-2 run and cut that deficit in half at the end of the first quarter at 25-15.

Oregon eventually cut the lead to eight, but could never make a further dent in the deficit. The Ducks could have easily thrown in the towel, but they kept on playing and gained confidence which will hopefully carry over to the next game at California on Sunday.

Chance Gray led the Ducks with 19 points on 6-of-14 from the floor and 3-of-5 from three-point land. Phillipina Kyei was the only other Duck in double figures with 14 points.

The Ducks will next battle the Bears on Sunday for a noon tip-off.

Mike Krzyzewski explains why he would’ve loved to coach Iowa’s Caitlin Clark

Coach K is the latest to pay compliments toward the Iowa superstar.

The list of great players that have been coached by Mike Krzyzewski while the winningest coach of all-time was piling up victories at Duke feels endless.

From Christian Laettner and Grant Hill to Carlos Boozer and Shane Battier, to Jayson Tatum and Zion Williamson. The list goes on and on and on, and that’s without getting to Coach K’s work with Team USA, where he coached the likes of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant to gold medals.

But there’s at least one player that Krzyzewski wishes he could have coached.

Recently on his SiriusXM podcast, “Basketball & Beyond with Coach K,” the retired former Blue Devils coach told Iowa star Caitlin Clark: “I would have loved to have coached you.”

Here’s more from Krzyzewski, who seemed to have endless compliments for Clark:

“You have an incredible platform now. You’re going to be one of the leaders to help millions of young girls realize their dreams – not just in sport. … It was fabulous talking to a great player. You made my day. You know what? You are so real. I would’ve loved to have coached you. And you’re not afraid. You’re not afraid. And God bless you. I’ve really enjoyed it, and I’ll be pulling for you the whole season. Stay healthy and stay real.”

Krzyzewski is likely not alone. It’s safe to say that a whole lot of coaches would like to have Clark on their team.

The reigning consensus national player of the year, Clark is leading the nation in scoring this season with 29.5 points per game and is fifth in assists with 7.4 per game. Iowa is 10-1 and ranked fourth in the AP Top 25 Poll this week.

Clark has one year of collegiate eligibility left beyond this season, but should she declare for the WNBA Draft, she will likely be the No. 1 overall pick. She already has endorsement deals with big national brands like Gatorade and State Farm, and it seems like businesses in Indianapolis are eager to work with her should she become a member of the Indiana Fever this spring.

Mike Krzyzewski ‘deeply saddened’ by death of mentor Bobby Knight despite fractured relationship

Mike Krzyzewski is the most prominent branch on Bobby Knight’s coaching tree, but their relationship soured.

Bob Knight, a Hall of Fame basketball coach who guided Indiana to three national championships and who had a well-documented history of acting violently, erratically and inappropriately, died on Wednesday at the age of 83 at his home in Bloomington, Indiana.

Aside from his trophies and his memorable angry tantrums, Knight’s legacy will likely live on through his coaching tree, of which Mike Krzyzewski is the most prominent branch.

Before becoming the winningest coach in the history of men’s college basketball, Krzyzewski played for Knight at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, coached under him for a season at Indiana and was an assistant on Knight’s gold-medal-winning 1984 Olympic team.

In a statement that Krzyzewski released Wednesday night, he called Knight “one of the greatest coaches in the history of basketball.”

It’s worth noting that Krzyzewski and his mentor didn’t seem to have a great relationship in the later years of Knight’s life. According to Ian O’Connor’s 2022 book, Coach K: The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski, the fracturing began in 1992 when Knight gave Krzyzewski a “drive-by handshake” after Duke beat Indiana in the Final Four. Knight then again snubbed Krzyzewski a handshake after the postgame press conference, and then a note written by Knight was delivered to Coach K.

From O’Connor’s book:

The note didn’t read quite like a Christmas card. Knight wrote that if Krzyzewski wanted to sever their relationship, that would be easily arranged. “He wrote that you should remember how you [expletive] got your job,” said one prominent friend of both men.

Also, according to O’Connor’s book, Knight was apparently “offended” that Krzyzewski didn’t offer him a scouting job with Team USA ahead of the 2008 Olympics. Years later, Knight – again according to the book – told a friend he would never take a call from Krzyzewski again.

In 2015, at an event at the Pinehurst Golf Resort in North Carolina where Knight was being honored for the 50th anniversary of his first victory at Army, Krzyzewski tried to extend an olive branch to Knight one more time. It did not go well.

From O’Connor’s book:

According to people in the hotel ballroom where the event took place, Knight was holding court with friends at his table when his former point guard approached. “Mike came in and said, ‘How are you doing, Coach?’ ” recalled Jim Oxley, Krzyzewski’s close friend and old backcourt partner. “And [Knight] barely even hesitated and continued with his story, that kind of thing. That was the start of it.” … “That was one of many straws that broke the camel’s back. I remember Mike walking out of there saying, ‘That’s it. I’ll never do this again.’ ”

Krzyzewski retired from coaching at the end of the 2021-22 season after leading Duke to a 13th Final Four appearance.

Micah Shrewsberry, Kebba Njie, Matt Zona speak during ACC Tipoff

Hear from a team that figures to have many challenges this season.

Notre Dame is facing a challenging season with a new face and a mostly new roster. [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] fielded questions about that during the ACC Tipoff on Oct. 25 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Alongside him were [autotag]Kebba Njie[/autotag], a transfer who came over with Shrewsberry from Penn State, and [autotag]Matt Zona[/autotag], one of the few returnees on this year’s Irish.

Here is what they had to say: