Coach K! Mike Krzyzewski

 It is crazy to me to think that it was 45 years ago that the world of basketball, would be introduced to one of the all time greatest coaches in the history of college basketball. His name is Mike Krzyzewski, better known as Coach K.

Nobody could have imagine at Duke University back in 1980 when Coach K was hired to be their next Men's basketball coach that he was going to turn the program into one of the most well known and elite programs in the history of college basketball.

Krzyzewski has led the Blue Devils to the NCAA tournament 36 times in his storied career collecting 101 tournament wins which is most all-time. Under his leadership, Duke won a total of five National Championships, 13 Final Fours as well as five in a row from 1988-1992. 17 Elite Eights, 26 Sweet Sixteens including nine in a row from 1998-2006, 14 times the Blue Devils were the number one seeds, 28 Conference Titles (15 Tournament, 13 Regular Season), 10 of the 13 ACC Tournament titles from 1998-1999 through 2010-2011.

Coach K also had 15 30 win seasons, 36 20 win seasons. Was number one in the AP in 17 of the past 28 seasons, had eight Naismith College Player of the Year awards, nine National Defensive Player of the Year Awards, 26 AP All-Americans, 14 Consensus first team All-Americans 11 NBA Top Ten Picks, 23 First Round Picks.

He is the first Men's basketball to reach 1,000 wins for his career. In fact, he surpassed his mentor Bob Knight when to become the all time leader in wins. Overall, Coach K has a total of 1,202 wins.

There were so many great players who learned under Krzyzewski like Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill, Danny Ferry, Brandon Davis, Luol Deng, Antonio Lang, Mike Dunleavy Jr, Carlos Boozer, the Plumlees, Johnny Dawkins, Gene Banks, Cherokee Parks and so on.

A number of his former players as well as assistant coaches are now head coaches themselves like Tommy Amaker, Mike Brey, Dawkins, Hurley, Chris Collins, Quin Snyder, etc.

To me, in my humble opinion, Coach K is the standard of college basketball for my generation. I never got to watch other greats like John Wooden (RIP), but to me, Mike Krzyzewski and Duke were always the team to beat for such a long time.

It was sad to see Coach K go and retire, but like the old saying goes, all things must come to an end. And I wish nothing but the best for him and his family.

Until Next Time!

God Bless and Be Safe Everybody! 🙏🙏🙏



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