902: Krzyzewski Ties The General For Most Wins In Men’s College Hoops

For the longest time, the measuring stick for coaching victories in men’s college basketball was none other than Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp, who rang up 876 career victories and a winning percentage of 82.2 percent.

Then along came North Carolina’s Dean Smith, who won 879 games and a pair of national championships in his career with the Tar Heels, spanning from 1961 to 1997.  Smith held the record for almost a decade:  Bob Knight, the longtime Indiana coach who had a previous stop at Army and then at Texas Tech, got his 880th win on New Year’s Day, 2007 as Texas Tech beat New Mexico 70-68.  Knight would go on to pick up 22 more coaching victories to get to 902 before resigning in February 2008.

Now the torch is ready to be passed once again.  Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, or Coach K as most people call him, tied Knight with his 902nd career victory Saturday afternoon as the sixth ranked Blue Devils blew out Presbyterian by a 96-55 score.  Krzyzewski, for those of you who don’t know, was Knight’s point guard at Army, and the two have a tremendous respect and friendship for one another that continues to this day.  Krzyzewski can go for the record Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden when the Blue Devils play Michigan State.

This game was never really in doubt, as Duke never led by less than two points after the opening eight minutes.  After Presbyterian cut the lead to 19-17, the Blue Devils rattled off a 34-13 run to close the half ahead 53-30.  Presbyterian would never get closer than that in the second half, as Duke ran off the first seven points of the second half to go up 30 and led by as many as 43 in the game.

The Blue Devils shot 61.4 percent from the floor in the game, and were led by Ryan Kelly, who had 17 points in 19 minutes off the bench as one of six Blue Devils in double digit scoring.  That included Miles Plumlee, who had 13 points and 11 rebounds, and his younger brother Mason, who also chipped in thirteen points.  Austin Rivers, the son of former NBA point guard and current Celtics coach Doc Rivers, chipped in fifteen points, six assists and three steals.

Presbyterian was led by Al’lonzo Coleman with 11 points and Pierre Miller with ten.  They were the lone Blue Hose players to score in double figures.  The team shot just 32.1 percent from the field and five of fifteen from three point land.  Duke coasted to the blowout win just one night after sneaking past Belmont, 77-76.  Belmont nearly upset Duke for the second consecutive time:  the Blue Devils needed a Gerald Henderson bucket with 11.9 seconds to go for the Blue Devils to escape Belmont 71-70 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.  Duke was a second seed, while Belmont was a fifteen seed that year.

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Posted by chris on Nov 13 2011. Filed under Basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.