Brill: Krzyzewski's Legend Continues To Grow At Latest Milestone

DURHAM, N.C. ? When you have won 800 basketball games in your career at the college level, rest assured that more than a few of them could be viewed as miraculous.

Like the first win over North Carolina in 1981, when Gene Banks hit the shot at the buzzer and Duke eventually won in overtime.

Or like the wins over Connecticut and Kentucky in the Elite Eight, last-second victories set up on plays called for Christian Laettner by the coach.

Or the win against “unbeatable” UNLV in the semifinals of the 1991 Final Four, again thanks to the dominance of Laettner and the three-point grit of Bobby Hurley that led to Duke's first of three NCAA titles.

So the 87-86 victory against N.C. State in Raleigh last Saturday would not rank among the most important. It does, however, add to the testament to the incredible career of Michael William Krzyzewski.

I liked what Eddie Sutton said prior to the game from his temporary residence in San Francisco, where as interim coach of the pathetic San Francisco Dons he has won four games to run his career total to 802 before he retires again, this time for good.

“I don't rank them in any order,” said Sutton, who coached successfully at Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma State before a battle with alcohol addiction sidelined him last spring with 798 wins. He accepted the temporary ?Frisco post this winter in order to reach 800. “But Mike is one of the top four or five coaches in basketball history.”

Sutton didn't mention the other members of his list, but I would think it included Bobby Knight, Adolph Rupp, Dean Smith and Henry Iba.

Coach K was somewhat emotional after defeating the inspired Wolfpack, who played the game of their lives in the RBC Center. They shot 54 percent to Duke's 38.6. They won the rebound battle 37-27. And they led virtually the entire game.

But they lost, because Coach K orchestrated a comeback in a contest that once saw Duke down 70-57, and still behind 81-73 with five minutes left. The Blue Devils led 29-26 with 7:52 left in the first half, and they never led again until DeMarcus Nelson made two free throws with 1:01 to play that made it 87-86. Neither team scored again.

Krzyzewski substituted frequently. He made defensive switches that worked for the first time, especially placing Nelson on State point guard Javi Gonzales, who until then had played the game of his life, just a few days after he, among others, had been called out by State coach Sidney Lowe for “awful” play in a home loss to Florida State.

It was only after Gonzales, a freshman from Puerto Rico, went to Lowe's office to ask the coach “don't give up on me” that Lowe learned that two of his point guard's friends had been killed back home.

When he had a chance to reflect on the victory in a game in which State achieved its highest point total of the season, Krzyzewski talked about reaching 800 victories. In essence, he dedicated the triumph to his mentor, Knight, for whom he played point guard at Army. It is Knight who has the most victories ever, 902 and holding ? because there is still a chance he will surface somewhere after he finishes his upcoming media debut as an analyst for ESPN.

Coach K, who repaired serious damage to the relationship with his old coach following the 1992 NCAA Final Four in which Duke went back-to-back, gave Knight credit for teaching him the game.

“He taught me the game sometimes in a manner that I didn't want to be taught, but I learned it.”

He pointed out that because of his association with Knight, he met the legends of the game, among them Iba and Pete Newell, and said that he had coached against another in North Carolina's Smith, who held the record that Knight broke last season.

“When a coach reaches a certain level of victories,” he said, “it's because of his assistants and his players (over a lengthy period of time) and his family. Tiger Woods wins, he wins alone. A coach has to have a lot of people contribute to get wins.”

Coach K, now in his 28th season at Duke after coaching at his alma mater, West Point, for five years, said he did not recall his first ACC victory, which came at N.C. State on Jan. 21, 1981, 56-47. For the record, his team was 0-4 in the league at the time and had previously lost to the Wolfpack by 14 in the old Big Four Tournament. “I'm sorry, but I can't remember that game. At that time, I was just happy to win. When I started, eight victories would have been nice.”

Duke was 38-47 in the first three years of the Krzyzewski era at Duke and there were many who felt athletic director Tom Butters had made a mistake when he hired the Knight prot?g?, recommended by the General.

Coach K said he never patterned his style after Knight, although Duke has emphasized man-to-man defense. “I think what happens is that you learn from everybody,” and he pointed out that he has been around some of the great minds even today, when his second job is coaching the USA Basketball team that will try to regain Olympic gold in Beijing this summer.

During several of Duke's needed timeouts against inspired State, Coach K said he let the players do the talking. At the final timeout, with 18.8 seconds left and 14 on the shot clock and Duke ahead by one, Nelson asked to have the ball. That's the kind of conversation that Krzyzewski loves. Nelson followed orders. He milked the clock down near the 35-second buzzer, then passed to Jon Scheyer, whose three-point attempt hit the rim, as the coach had insisted. State's lengthy desperation shot never had a chance.

Nobody knows how long Krzyzewski will coach, although he just turned a youthful 61 on Feb. 13. Even now, he says, he is still learning. He does not interrupt his USA point guard, Jason Kidd, in the huddle. Grinning, he suggested that the now-Dallas veteran had carte blanche to say what he wanted and do what he wanted. “What do you have in mind, Jason?” he said he asked.

Coach K is the sixth coach to achieve the 800 level. Sutton, of course, almost certainly will be surpassed this season. Ahead will be four guys who have retired, including Jim Phelan of Mount Saint Mary, who should be eclipsed next season. After that comes the Hall of Fame trio of Rupp, Smith and Knight.

Even at 61, Krzyzewski has become even more successful. In this decade, in which Duke has won far more games than any other program (258-50), he has his highest winning percentage (.838). In the same period, Duke is 110-32 in ACC regular-season games (.775), and an astonishing 20-2 in the league tournament with an unprecedented six titles in seven years prior to last year's first-round loss, to State in overtime.

He has a 68-20 record in the NCAAs (.838), more wins than anyone, and he is 727-205 in his career at Duke (.780). Overall, he is now 800-264, including the Army years and counting ? while still learning.

To me, that's a comfortable feeling.