Duke basketball schedules are always carefully thought out, and you can bet the 11th through the 13th games of the 2010-11 season will be interesting when schedules are out in August as Mike Krzyzewski pursues Dean Smith's victory total.Krzyzewski, who held his summer media conference on Monday, now has 868 wins in his career. That’s only 11 short of Smith’s 879 victories, and you can bet Duke will want to be playing in Cameron Indoor Stadium when Krzyzewski ties and breaks that mark.
Last year, Duke’s 11th game came on Dec. 29 against Long Beach State and its 12th on Dec. 31 against Pennsylvania. Both were held in Cameron. The ACC opener, on Jan. 3, also was at home.
ACC teams tend to play at home over the holidays, often against weak teams, so they can get back into the groove after exams and prepare for league play. Look for the Blue Devils to hold a host of home games in that stretch as Krzyzewski closes in on major career milestones.Krzyzewski probably will catch his former coach, Bob Knight, next season. Knight has 902 wins, followed by Smith at 879 and Adolph Rupp at 876.
By the way, the most interesting part of the news conference came when Krzyzewski , according to the AP, said, "I'm a basketball coach all the time. That's what I do. I don't play golf. I chase my dog, or he chases me, and I whack down some trees and bushes and play with my grandkids and drink a little bit of wine. I like to socialize, but I'm a basketball coach every day of my life."
You can watch the entire news conference on GoDuke.com.
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I know you're not doing this, but I can't stand when Coach Smith and Coach K are compared. In fact, I don't like when coaches are compared by number of wins or national championships won for that matter.
ReplyDeleteCoach Smith inherited a recruiting scandal that cut into scholarships. Plus, he coached at a time when most everybody knew that UCLA was going to win the national championship each year. (The Bruins won 10 under Wooden, including seven in a row from 1966-1973.)
Finally, teams play more games each year now than they did in the 1960s and 1970s. Coach K started at Duke in 1980. (In other words, Krzyzewski has already coached more games than Smith.)
And, while more fair, it's not totally fair to base a comparison on head-to-head matchups because Smith had already established the UNC program when Krzyzewski came to Duke to rebuild it. For the record, I believe that Smith had a 42-28 edge over Krzyzewski.
In short, I'm going to be cringing a lot this season as Coach K gets closer to passing Coach Smith's win total. The comparisons will fly and the A.B.C. crowd will be at its unhinged finest.