RALEIGH - Coach K has joined the 800 Club.
As soon as N.C. State's Ben McCauley missed a desperation three at the buzzer and Duke's 87-86 comeback win was sealed, the Blue Devil players and coaches swarmed their head coach in celebration of his historic 800th win. With the victory, Krzyzewski became only the sixth Division-I head coach to hit the milestone, taking 1,064 games to reach the historic total.
"Eight victories would have been nice," Krzyzewski said. "It is hard to put it in perspective right now."
With the Wolfpack dominating on the court and the scoreboard for much of the game, the odds of Duke securing the momentous win for its coach Saturday seemed long. But the team's inspired late push in the game's final minutes erased a double-digit N.C. State lead to convert a probable defeat into a milestone victory.
"We just really wanted to get this win for him," guard Jon Scheyer said. "It was something we had talked about in practice, and when we were down, I know in the back of all of our minds we were just thinking, 'We can't let Coach down. We've got to get this one for Coach.'"
In his postgame press conference, Krzyzewski deferred praise to his players, coaches and family members, saying that "a coach doesn't get milestones without those people." Still, Krzyzewski took special effort to thank another member of the 800-win club who has been a key participant in his development into a Hall of Fame coach: his former Army coach and mentor Bob Knight.
"As a point guard for him for three years, he taught me the game, sometimes in a manner in which I didn't want to be taught, but I learned it," Krzyzewski said. "He's been my friend and teacher and mentor ever since. It's allowed me to become who I am with his help."
Krzyzewski acknowledged Knight for opening doors for him to learn from some of the game's most respected coaches, including Oklahoma State legend Henry Iba and former California and San Francisco coach Pete Newell. Kryzewski also credited Knight for teaching him how to instill the moral framework that has been a staple of his successful tenure at Duke.
"If you try to mimic someone's style... you're never going to be who you are," Krzyzewski said. "But you can certainly try to mimic core values, teaching points, preparation--all of those things-and the type of kids you'll recruit that will buy into that and will play really hard for that. So a lot of that comes from Coach Knight."
A grateful Krzyzewski continued by mentioning how much he had learned from his experiences coaching for 28 seasons in the ACC against some of the greatest minds in the history of the game, such as North Carolina's Dean Smith.
But on a day when his benchmark came against the team once coached by longtime friend Jim Valvano, Krzyzewski could not forget his late friend and coaching colleague.
"I hope my buddy Jimmy is looking down today," Krzyzewski said. "I always wear one of his ties [sold to raise funds for Valvano's V Foundation for Cancer Research], just because he's such a good friend, and I love him. You just get a bit emotional."
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