Coach K has history of March sadness playing on West Coast
Mike Krzyzewski may be the most accomplished coach in college basketball history, but there's one thing he hasn't done — win an NCAA Tournament game on the West Coast.
Coach K has five national titles, 12 Final Fours and a 99-30 career record during March Madness, but has lost all five games played in the Pacific Time Zone.
To put a storybook ending on his 47-year career, he'll have to do it in his final chance, starting tonight when No. 2 Duke faces No. 3 Texas Tech in a West Regional semifinal at Chase Center (6:39 p.m., CBS).
Back in 2016, before Duke's last appearance in the West Regional, Krzyzewski dismissed concerns about his track record out west when an ESPN reporter asked him about it.
“It's interesting with ESPN, every time I look at the ticker, it's something we haven't done,” Krzyzewski said in 2016. “So we've won 90 games in the NCAA. Yeah, I've never been one to look at what I do on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays or whatever. I've looked at what we've done cumulative.
“So it's our 23rd Sweet 16. We've been in 116 NCAA games, and we're honored like crazy to be in here. I really don't think it makes a damn bit of difference what we've done on the West Coast before. If we started to compete because of Mondays, Tuesdays and West Coast, I don't think we ever would have had five national championships and 12 Final Fours.”
Despite being the lower seed, the Red Raiders are small favorites tonight. Texas Tech won the 2019 West Regional, defeating No. 1 Gonzaga, en route to the championship game.
Duke seems to have a talent advantage tonight — its five starters are all top-35 prospects in ESPN's latest 2022 NBA draft rankings. But Kyrie Irving, J.J. Redick, Johnny Dawkins, Danny Ferry, Brandon Ingram and others have taken the long plane ride from Durham in March and come back without adding to Coach K's all-time best win total, which now stands at 1,200.
Here's a look at what went wrong in Coach K's five previous trips out west:
1984: WASHINGTON 80, DUKE 78.
Coach K's misery out west started in his very first tournament game. The Blue Devils were the No. 3 seed behind Dawkins, Tommy Amaker, Mark Alarie and Jay Bilas, but Detlef Schrempf scored 21 of his 30 points in the second half as No. 6 seed Washington overcame an eight-point halftime deficit in Pullman, Wash. Dawkins collided with Washington's Clay Damon and couldn't control an alley-oop pass as time expired.
In K's words: “Johnny Dawkins got undercut, and there was no call in Pullman, Washington,” Krzyzewski said before his first-round game last week. “So that was my first experience, and we lost a real close game.” 1989: SETON HALL 95, DUKE 78.
Before Duke won back-to-back titles in 1991-92, it was the team that couldn't get over the hump. Their seventh Final Four without a championship ended when an early 18-point lead evaporated in Seattle despite 34 points from Danny Ferry. No. 3 seed Seton Hall knocking off No. 2 seed Duke spoiled the homecoming of senior Quin Snyder, now the coach of the Utah Jazz.
In Krzyzewski's words: “I thought our team was as ready to play as we could be, and we played an outstanding team.”
2003: KANSAS 69, DUKE 65.
Redick has the most points in Duke history, but he had the worst shooting game of his college career in Anaheim. Redick was just 2 of 16 from the field as the thirdseeded Blue Devils lost in the Sweet 16 to Nick Collison (33 points, 19 rebounds) and No. 2 Kansas, coached by Roy Williams.
In Krzyzewski's words: “That's one of the great performances you can have in a tournament. (Collison) played like a champion. It took that kind of an effort because our kids played like champions tonight.”
Once again, Duke had no answers for an opposing big man, despite 28 points from Irving. Playing 15 minutes from his hometown of La Marida, Derrick Williams had a career-high 32 points and 13 rebounds in Anaheim to send No. 1 Duke packing in the Sweet 16. The fifth-seeded Wildcats outscored the Blue Devils 55-33 in the second half, including a key 19-2 run.
In Krzyzewski's words: “They just got on a real roll. When you get on a roll, you have more energy than the other guy. We had no stop for them, and you kind of get overwhelmed there for a little bit. They knocked us back and got that double-digit lead.”
2016: OREGON, 82, DUKE 68.
Duke appeared in the Sweet 16 in Anaheim for the third time in 2016. And for the third time, it was a short stay. Future pros Ingram (24 points), Luke Kennard (13 points, 11 rebounds) and Grayson Allen (15 points) couldn't help No. 4 Duke get past No. 1 Oregon, who led by double digits for the final 14 minutes. The most memorable moment happened after the game, when Coach K appeared to chastise Oregon's Dillon Brooks in the handshake line for taking a last-second 3-pointer.
In Krzyzewski's words: “They were the better team, that was pretty obvious. They were always in control of the game.”