Tomorrow, head coach Mike Krzyzewski will most likely win the 880th game of his coaching career, putting him behind only Bob Knight on the Division I coaching win ledger. And since Duke is playing winless UNC-Greensboro, the victory is already not really in question.
The win would also mean Krzyzewski passes Dean Smith, the longtime rival and legendary former North Carolina coach. This has caused much gnashing of teeth from Tarheel fans in the area, but Roy Williams, in an interview with the (Raleigh) News & Observer, said he was fine with it. The paper talked with Williams about the feat yesterday:
It's an amazing accomplishment. And when I say 'amazing,' I can't bold enough letters, I can't capitalize enough. It's a major accomplishment, and it's amazing. It's human nature that you hate that somebody's passing Coach Smith, there's no question about that. But no one can have more respect for what Mike has done than I do. And I mean that -- our fans may get ticked off, but that's the truth.
It's a much different time now than it was 30 years ago, and to be able to do it the way he's done it, and what he's done, it's just an event. I'm not happy -- but I am happy. I can go all the way back to '91, when they beat us [Kansas] in the national championship game, and the first thing I said to Mike was 'Obviously, I'm devastated, but I'm happy for you.' He had gone through some of the same stuff that Coach [Smith] had been through, he had gone four or five or six times and not won it. So I was really ticked off that we hadn't won, but I was really happy for him.
Finally, be sure to check back on the blog tomorrow for an interview with John Feinstein, who was there when the rivalry between Krzyzewski and Smith began.
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