After Duke beat Butler in the national championship game, Coach Mike Krzyzewski was finally relieved of the immense (unjustified) pressure that had been on his shoulders all season. I will put it like this, you do not want to be the head coach at Duke if you are coming off four straight home losses to your archrival North Carolina and five straight early tournament exits. So much pressure, in fact, that after Duke beat Baylor in the Elite Eight, Coach K was so relieved to have made it back to the final four and finally have his critics off his back that he completely forgot to share the moment with his wife. An usher had to yell at him, “Hey Coach, you forgot your wife!” Krzyzewski quickly apologized to his wife telling her how crazy it was out there. The good news for Coach K is that he only needed to apologize to his wife, not duke fans. Having lead Duke to yet another national championship, Coach K cemented a place for himself among the greatest coaches of all time and also satisfied disgruntled fans.
With his fourth national championship win two nights ago, Coach K tied Adolf Rupp for the second most national championship wins among men’s college basketball coaches (only John Wooden has won more titles, winning 10 at UCLA from 1964-1975). Krzyzewski’s 11 Final Four appearances also tie him for second most Final Four appearances among all coaches. Furthermore, he holds the NCAA tournament record for highest winning percentage (78%). Not only is he first in wins in tourney history with 77 victories, but Coach K is also the first coach to win national championships in three consecutive decades. Under his reign, Duke has played more games ranked as the number 1 team (190) than it has as an unranked team (144). Averaging more than 25 wins a season, Coach K is expected to surpass Bob Knight as the all time winningest college basketball coach in the next season or two. Coach K is only 34 wins shy of Knight—his own former coach at Army—with a grand total of 868 victories. Duke fans sending him hate mail before this season seem to have forgotten all of these accolades and just how good Krzyzewski is. I mean, I can’t think of a coach I would rather have head my team. If Coach K was hated on so much with his past success, I can’t even imagine what Rick Barnes of the Texas Longhorns is going through right now. He is the primary reason that the Longhorns had what I consider their most disappointing basketball season ever. Then again, most coaches at high levels understand that they are only as good as their last season.
Coach K has clearly done some impressive coaching in the past, but I don’t think anything compares to what he did this year. Amidst all of the pressure, He guided his Duke team, which didn’t have the normal star power or depth of his previous championship teams, to a 35-5 record and a ACC tournament title. Then came the NCAA tournament where many people believed that the Blue Devils were over seeded. The Blue Devils certainly lacked the athleticism and NBA lottery picks compared to the other one seeds and some of the teams they faced in the tournament. But Duke had a “secret” weapon that no one else had: Mike Krzyzewski. He continually out-coached every team his Dukies played, as evident in Duke’s 17-point margin of victory heading into their showdown with Butler. And we all know how that game played out: Mike Krzyzewski was able to conduct his Blue Devils past Butler, a team that almost seemed destined to win it all and achieve a fairytale ending, in one of the greatest championship games in tournament history. And if none of that impresses you, perhaps Coach K’s most impressive feat was turning Brian Zoubek (easily the most klutzy and biggest goofball ever to walk this earth) into a productive basketball player.
-The Southern Gentleman
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