KRZYZEWSKI’S DRIVE SOMETHING TO WITNESS
At 71 years old, NCAA legend has new knees but hasn’t lost a step, John Feinstein writes.
Mike Krzyzewski walked briskly down a hallway inside PPG Paints Arena on Thursday, keeping up a surprisingly fast pace for a 71-year-old man with two surgically replaced hips and two surgically replaced knees.
He had just finished his postgame meeting after Duke University had beaten the Iona College Gaels 89-67 in the first round of the NCAA tournament. It was the 92nd victory in this event for Krzyzewski and, even though his Blue Devils took control of the game late in the first half, he didn’t relax until the very end. “Lehigh and Mercer,” he said, ticking off teams that have beaten his teams in the first round in the recent past. “Just because I’ve done this before and had some success doesn’t mean I’m going to prepare any differently or any less.”
He had a good idea of what he and his team would face in the second round: a University of Rhode Island Rams side with veteran guards that could make life difficult for his very talented but very inexperienced team. That is why he was in a hurry. He wanted to get back to the hotel and begin meeting with his assistant coaches and looking at tape. That’s been his ritual for 43 years as a coach, and he isn’t about to change now.
“I’m glad I have work to do tonight,” he said Thursday with a smile. “Because it means we won today and have another game to play.”
Duke will play another game next Friday in Omaha, Neb., in the Sweet 16 against Michigan State or Syracuse after a dominating 87-62 victory over Rhode Island on Saturday.
The win added to all the extraordinary numbers Krzyzewski has produced in his remarkable career. He has won 1,099 games, surpassing Pat Summitt as the all-time leader among NCAA coaches, male or female. The only college coach he now trails is Harry Statham, who recently retired from McKendree of the NAIA level with 1,122 wins in 52 seasons.
The win was also the 93rd in the NCAA tournament for Krzyzewski — 17 more than Roy Williams, his counterpart at archrival North Carolina, and 28 more than Dean Smith, who tortured him during his early years at Duke. This will also be the 23rd time he’s coached the second weekend of the tournament. Twelve of those previous 22 trips resulted in Final Four appearances, five of them in national championships.
In short, he has nothing left to prove. Yet he still coaches as if he was at Army, where he spent five years with players who were too small and too slow to compete and went 73-59. He doesn’t just remember the losses to Lehigh and Mercer, but his first three years at Duke, when he was 38-47 and many alumni wanted him run out of town. “There’s no question you can embarrass me with,” he once told a questioner in a news conference who said he didn’t want to embarrass him with a personal question. “I lost a game by 43 my third year at Duke. That was embarrassing.”
This Duke team is built around four freshmen — none of whom is likely to be around next season — and one senior, Grayson Allen. It has two remarkably talented big men in Marvin Bagley III, likely to be the first player taken in June’s NBA draft, and Wendell Carter Jr., also a likely lottery pick.
But with youth comes inexperience, especially on defence. That’s why Krzyzewski has been forced to play exclusively zone defence for almost the entire season. Krzyzewski talks up the zone every chance he gets because he wants his players to believe in it.
“We foul less in the zone,” he said Saturday. “Today, we did a good job most of the game getting to their shooters. This was one of our best games of the season. We played an outstanding team and we were an outstanding team today.”
When someone asked him about passing Summitt in wins, he said all the right things.
I’ve won a lot of games and that’s great, but I’ve had a lot of great players and good health … basically I have a new body.
“Pat would have had hundreds more wins if she’d stayed healthy,” he said. “It’s an honour because she was a pioneer. She built an entire sport.
“I’ve won a lot of games and that’s great, but I’ve had a lot of great players and good health.” He paused, smiled and added: “I’ve got two new knees and two new hips, so basically I have a new body.” Krzyzewski has mastered the one-and-done, recruiting a retinue of new players each year. But he doesn’t like the one-anddone because what he loved most about coaching was watching young men mature as people and players. He rarely gets to do that anymore.
“If you don’t adapt in coaching, you don’t survive,” he said a few years back. “If I don’t change with the times, I won’t be coaching.”