From the depths of Atlanta to Olympic gold, Coach K has had an amazing basketball run
Mike Krzyzewski is retiring after next season at Duke, a megaton announcement made Wednesday, and his college basketball “farewell tour” should be memorable.
Just think of all the retirement and “old man” gifts Coach K will receive from ACC rivals. Think of how much emotion his final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, likely against North Carolina, will have. Oh, what a day.
But here’s a look back and some of the biggest moments, good and bad, in Coach K’s amazing basketball run:
New day at Duke
March 18, 1980
Duke athletic director Tom Butters introduced the new men’s basketball coach, calling him Mike “Kre-shef-ski.” It took a while to get the proper pronunciation down and a little longer before he was being known simply as Coach K. The Blue Devils under former coach Bill Foster had gone to the Final Four in 1978. Krzyzewski had a lot of work to do to get the Blue Devils back.
Annihilation in Atlanta
March 11, 1983
Krzyzewski’s third season at Duke ended with 109-66 loss to Virginia in the ACC Tournament in Atlanta. N.C. State won the ACC, then the NCAA championship. North Carolina had been the 1982 national champs. Duke had gone 10-17 in 1981-82 and then 11-17 in 1982-83. There was a faction of Duke fans that wanted Coach K gone, especially after the rout in Atlanta that Krzyzewski would call the “most embarrassing” game of his career.
ACC redemption
March 10, 1984
Almost a year to the day, Coach K and the Blue Devils gained some redemption. Duke edged top-ranked North Carolina 77-75 in the ACC tournament semifinals behind Mark Alarie and Johnny Dawkins, two of the recruits that helped save Coach K’s job.
A first NCAA win
March 15, 1985
Reaching the NCAA tournament in 1984 was a first for Krzyzewski and his program, but the Blue Devils gained their first NCAA win a year later against Pepperdine in Houston. The Blue Devils would be ousted in the next round by Boston College, but Duke’s success story in the NCAAs under Coach K had begun.
ACC champions
March 9, 1986
Three years after making the vow to bring Duke back, Coach K cut down the nets and held the ACC championship trophy for the first time after beating Georgia Tech in the ACC tournament final in Greensboro. The Blue Devils also were the ACC regular-season winner for the first time under Coach K. They would finish 37-3 and NCAA runner-up after losing to Louisville in the title game.
Revenge against the Rebels
March 30, 1991
Duke had been routed by UNLV in the 1990 NCAA title game and again were matched up against the undefeated Runnin’ Rebels in the 1991 national semifinals in Indianapolis. The Blue Devils won 77-75 in one of the biggest upsets in NCAA history. Coach K trying to calm down his players after the game — somewhat unsuccessfully — was a memorable scene on a most memorable day.
The first time
April 1, 1991
There’s only one first time. Duke’s first national basketball title came under Mike Krzyzewski as the Blue Devils downed Kansas, then coached by Roy Williams, 72-65 in the championship game. Eight years after the debacle in Atlanta, Coach K had Duke on top of college basketball.
Laettner at the buzzer
March 28, 1992
Coach K told his players they would win, even when it seemed they had lost to Kentucky. All it took was a long in-bounds heave from Grant Hill to Christian Laettner and Laettner’s calm-as-can-be turnaround jumper for the score. Call it The Shot. It was on to another Final Four.
Double the pleasure
April 6, 1992
Michigan’s “Fab Five” believed they could beat Duke but didn’t come close. Duke’s second national championship was won 75-51. Another banner soon was ready for Cameron.
Feeling the pain
Jan. 22, 1995
Krzyzewski had back surgery in October before the 1994-95 season but returned to coach too soon. With the pain too intense, Coach K, then 47, and the school announced he would sit out the remainder of the season. Pete Gaudet had taken over as interim coach on Jan. 10. For Krzyzewski, the absence from his team would be the low point of his career.
The third time
April 2, 2001
To win the school’s third national title, Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils had to turn back Lute Olson and Arizona in the NCAA championship game. Duke won 82-72. That came two days after a huge comeback win over Maryland, which led by 22 points in the first half. Another banner for Cameron.
Heart-stopper
April 5, 2010
It was a hold-your-breath kind of moment when Butler’s Gordon Hayward lifted a midcourt shot in the final seconds. The ball rimmed out, Duke had survived and Coach K had a fourth national title.
1K for Coach K
Jan. 25, 2015
Krzyzewski’s first win as a college head coach was at Army in 1975. Forty years later came No. 1,000 and was won at Madison Square Garden in New York against St. John’s. “To win 1,000, you’ve got to be a lucky guy,” Coach K said after the game.
No. 5 for Duke
April 6, 2015
Coach K’s fifth national title was won against Wisconsin, 68-63. Only former UCLA legend John Wooden, with 10 titles, had more. For Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils it was another successful trip to Indy for the NCAAs.
Golden finish
Aug. 21, 2016
For the third straight time, Krzyzewski guided Team USA to Olympic gold as the U.S. defeated Serbia 99-66 in the gold-medal game in Rio as Kevin Durant had 30 points. Krzyzewski, in his final stint as U.S. national coach, also won gold in 2008 (the “Redeem Team”) and 2012 in London. Coach K would call coaching Team USA the “ultimate honor.”
This story was originally published June 2, 2021 at 5:30 PM.
