CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.—Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski reached the pinnacle of his profession with win No. 1,000 Jan. 25 at Madison Square Garden, but just six days later he achieved another notable accomplishment.
The 67-year old tied North Carolina legend Dean Smith with his 422nd ACC win Saturday night after the No. 4 Blue Devils staged a furious comeback at No. 2 Virginia. Duke closed the game on a 14-2 run to hand the Cavaliers their first loss of the season and stay within striking distance for the ACC regular season title.
After the game, Krzyzewski was as usual not thinking about his latest milestone—it was not brought to his attention by the media and he did not mention it—but instead about what the win could mean for his 18-3 team.
“I’ve really loved my team—they’re tough kids,” Krzyzewski said after win No. 1,001. “We’re young, and we’re not that big. We’re good—we’re not great. We have the potential to be very good, but we’re not there yet. I like my group a lot. They’re not afraid.”
The way Krzyzewski navigated the previous 72 hours before Saturday’s primetime game had a huge impact on his team’s mental state, with the players finding a way to block out the distraction of Wednesday’s blown double-digit lead and the dismissal of junior Rasheed Sulaimon. Despite his team’s miscues at No. 8 Notre Dame and struggles for much of Saturday’s game—Duke missed six first-half free throws and did not convert a 3-pointer for the first 30:21 of game time—Krzyzewski’s support of his current players before and during the game helped the Blue Devils pull the upset.
“Human nature crept in a little bit [before the game]—we were like, ‘Where do we go from here?’” said reserve guard Matt Jones, who scored nine points in 24 minutes. “Coach did a great job of instilling confidence in us, even when we were down eight and even throughout the points of the game, to look at him and see all the confidence in the world—that means a lot as a player.”
Now in his 40th season of coaching, Krzyzewski’s energy and support keep his players believing in his approach, even when they are struggling with aspects of the game as they were Saturday night.
“Coach believes in us, we believe in Coach and we believe in one another—it was really about having each other’s back,” said point guard Tyus Jones, who nailed the dagger 3-pointer that sealed the game with 10.4 seconds left.
In addition to providing confidence, Krzyzewski also provided a 3-2 zone modification that helped the Blue Devils keep Virginia scoreless in the final 2:59. Duke closed the game on a 11-0 run by closing off the paint to cutters more effectively and finally getting back out in transition.
And although he may hear about it from his old friend and Syracuse head coach Boeheim—whose Orange use a long, athletic 2-3 zone—Krzyzewski said he does not mind given the Blue Devils’ predicament with only eight scholarship players on their roster. He will look to keep coming up with the right moves again Wednesday when Duke hosts Georgia Tech and Krzyzewski’s gets his first chance to earn another honor.
“It’s not the same zone—it’s not as good probably as Syracuse,” Krzyzewski said. “But what the heck, it’s [one of the things] we have to do right now.”
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