SYRACUSE, N.Y.—The Blue Devils got their first win at the Carrier Dome against Syracuse Saturday night, prompting plenty of discussion about the teams' budding rivalry after Duke's 80-72 victory.
But after the game, Blue Devil head coach Mike Krzyzewski was quick to point out that the Orange are hardly the only team to raise its level of play when Duke comes to town.
“My rivalry is with everyone because I want to beat everyone," Krzyzewski. "It’s what everyone else makes up, what the rivalries are. If we show up against one team better than another, then we’re idiots, so why would we only show up strong against our so-called rival? All that I know is we get everyone’s best shot and we’re trying to give everyone our best shot. That’s the way it’s been for 25 years for us—[it’s not] going to change.”
Still, when he was asked about whether or not the emotions in the building and whether or not the Blue Devils are now to Syracuse what its former Big East rival Georgetown was, Krzyzewski did acknowledge that the Orange and Duke do seem on their way to forming a unique relationship.
"I don’t know what we are. We’re a lot of people’s something. It’s nice to be wanted," Krzyzewski said. "For as long as [Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim] and I are coaching, it won’t be that type of rivalry because [Syracuse-Georgetown] was nasty. It’s a great rivalry because we both have built some really neat programs and it gets center stage. We’ll handle it the right way. That’s good for the league.”
One of the reasons for the Blue Devils' more civilized budding rivalry with Syracuse is the close relationship between two of the most storied head coaches in college basketball history—Krzyzewski and Boeheim.
“There’s nobody that I’m closer to in our profession than Jim and no one that I respect more than Jim. That’s the kind of rivalry I think we’ll have, at least," Krzyzewski said. "We’re not going to be here that long, but maybe [at least] a little bit longer.”
Another unique link between Duke and Syracuse is Orange forward Michael Gbinije, who was part of Blue Devil senior Quinn Cook's freshman class before transferring after his first season in Durham. The 6-foot-7 forward was on fire Saturday night, knocking down five 3-pointers in the game's first 17 minutes and pouring in 19 first-half points against his old team.
Gbinije finished with 27 points on 10-of-14 shooting and played all 40 minutes Saturday night. And although the swingman had his career day against Duke, Krzyzewski was still gracious about Syracuse acquiring his former recruit.
“They did everything the right way. That’s the way it is in college basketball. There are about 650 transfers each year now," Krzyzewski said. "I’m just glad [Gbinije] turned out to be the player that we thought he would be and that he didn’t beat us tonight.”
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