SAN FRANCISCO. Mike Krzyszewski will coach his 1,437th college game Saturday at the glittering basketball palace they call the Chase Center. What’s waiting? Glory or defeat?
No. 2 seed Duke is a win en route to reaching the Final Four and sending Krzyzewski there for the 13th time. A victory over No. 4 seeded Arkansas allowed Krzyzewski to break a tie in career Final Four hits with the legendary John Wooden.
The Final Four is a Mecca for players and coaches, Krzyzewski said on Friday. “It’s just… nothing like that.
The Blue Devils (31-6) will face the Sharp Backs (28-8) in a match that has been in the making for almost three decades. The last time Duke and Arkansas played it was on a bigger stage than this: the 1994 national championship game. Arkansas won their only title. Eric Musselman has the Boars in the Elite 8 for the second consecutive season, a feat last accomplished at school by those Sharp Backs who won the title in 1994, who made it to the Elite 8 a year later (and then and in the Final Four). If Arkansas ends K’s career, it will be the seventh Final Four appearance in the program’s history.
Krzyzewski opened up a bit on Friday. He shared this after a home loss to North Carolina to close out the regular season (by the way: everyone is seeing UNC vs. Duke for the first time in NCAA Tournament history, right around the corner, looming like a brontosaurus), subtle but necessary changes were made. It was those changes that allowed Duke to grow and essentially led them to a Saturday night in San Francisco with a chance at the Final Four.
“In these ten days, I learned something and saw that my team suffered,” said Krzyszewski. “Not only because of the loss, but because of a number of things. I just had a good meeting with myself. I said, “I have to do something.” I have to help somehow, and part of that was my approach to them.”
For example, in the NCAA tournament, halftimes are about five minutes longer than teams during the season. So, instead of talking about good and bad moments as soon as the team is in the dressing room, Krzyzewski plays freely.
“I’ve never done this before, but in Michigan State and again last night when I walk into the locker room, I just pull out a chair, sit with them for about five minutes and just, okay, that’s where we are.” on, and just talk to them,” he said.
You could even feel some regret from Krzyszewski in the way he handled the loss to UNC and in his address to the crowd – he told everyone: “Please be quiet.”
“I saw my team, I felt very sorry for them,” Krzyszewski said. “I was very sorry that we lost. When I said “unacceptable”, it wasn’t because they were unacceptable. It was an unacceptable outcome and I wanted to make sure they didn’t misunderstand it and so we’re, in a way, it’s part of growing together, growing up, and I’m taking responsibility for that.”
If this Duke team had been created with a different set of personalities, they would not have reacted the way they do now. There is faith, confidence, intelligence and emotional trust. Duke had almost a week between a demoralizing home loss in K’s last home game and the start of the ACC tournament. Without a game, this gap has created enough of a gap for coaches and players to dig in and chart a new course for the season.
This is evidenced by how Duke has transformed since then in terms of execution and composure throughout every win.
In post-season play, Duke has turned into a monster when the game hangs in the balance. The team trailed or tied in the last minutes of four of five games in the ACC and NCAA tournaments. Against Syracuse, Miami, Michigan State, and Texas Tech, the Blue Devils collectively responded with a victory in those four games, outscoring those four teams 57-22.
Against the Red Raiders on Thursday, Duke made his last eight shots in the last 8:25 of the game. An outrageous act against the number one defense in the country. Krzyzewski doesn’t have many bogeymen to rock 47 years of his career, but Duke’s victory over Texas Tech did mark the program’s first NCAA Tournament win in the Pacific Time Zone – ever.
“John Scheier said that yesterday when we were on the team together before the game,” Krzyszewski said. “He said, ‘You know, coach, this is the best group we’ve ever had.’ They’re a really good group of kids and they’re becoming men and that’s how lucky I am?”
Paolo Banchero, the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, is averaging 19.3 points, 7.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 54% shooting in the NCAA Tournament. Fellow Mark Williams has been something of an unsung star, averaging 15.3 points, 7.7 rebounds and 4.3 blocks in his last three games. Jeremy Roach has scored 15 in the last two, landing clutch strikes to push back enemies and take Herzog to a record 17th in Krzyzewski’s Elite Eight. K surpasses all but five teams in all-time tournament wins. He has 100 wins against 82 schools. Kentucky (129), UNC (129), Duke (117), Kansas (112) and UCLA (108) are the only ones to beat him.
“Very few people cross this bridge, so I was able to cross it with my team 12 times, and crossing with this team would be an amazing event for me, and I know what is on the other side of the bridge. They don’t. They can only look at it. So that makes me want that for them more.”
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski
It’s outrageous. But in a tournament in which the 15-seeded St. Peters made the unprecedented, in which Miami made its first Elite Eight in school history, which offered the most diverse Elite Eight we’ve ever seen, don’t automatically assume that Duke walking around as a kind of invitation to NOLA.
The Blue Devils will get a team from Arkansas that won’t be intimidated, not even a little. The Razorbacks’ victory over the No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga on Thursday made the team the first in history to eliminate the No. 1 seed in the NCAA and to a regular season victory over the No. 1 AP team (Auburn, in February). There will be a fight on Saturday. This battle will be fought over what Krzyzewski calls “the bridge.”
The construction of the grid is very different between the regional final and the national semi-final. Again, we’re talking about the Mecca of hoops here. You need a link to get there.
“Very few people cross this bridge,” said Krzyszewski, “and so I was able to cross it with my teams 12 times, and crossing with this team would be an amazing event for me, and I know what is on the other end of the bridge.” side of the bridge. They don’t. They can only look at him.
One win before a match that will last for centuries, no matter who walks across the bridge to face Duke. It’s either the biggest David vs. Goliath fight in sports history – the Duke vs. St. Peter, mercy, mercy! — or Duke versus North Carolina in the Final Four for the first time in rivalry history that Krzyzewski’s impending departure will raise the stakes higher than they have ever been or could ever be again.
It’s almost too much. It’s almost too perfect. Before we can get there, we need to settle some things in San Francisco. Let’s see if Duke has another level to show us all, or if Arkansas can play the spoiler and get another victory over Krzyzewski, 28 years after the last one.