Winning seasons, superb graduation rates for his players and a basketball team that is as close as family are all attributes that reflect on the man who is now in his 31st year as the head coach of the Blue Devils, Mike Krzyzewski.
Although some still stumble with pronouncing and spelling his name, when people speak of the highest level of success in the college basketball world, the name Krzyzewski (Sha-shef-skee) immediately comes to mind.
In 30 years at Duke, Krzyzewski, a Hall of Fame coach and 12-time National Coach of the Year, has built a dynasty that few programs in the history of the game can match.
Entering the 2010-11 season, Coach K owns an 868-279 record in 35 years of coaching, including a 795-220 mark in 30 seasons in Durham. He is 35 wins shy of becoming the winningest coach in Division I men’s college basketball history.
Krzyzewski’s record as Duke’s all-time winningest coach offers evidence of his success, but even more impressive are the four national championships. The fourth title came last season with a 61-59 win over Butler in Indianapolis while he also led Duke to the championship in 2001 and to back-to-back titles in 1991 and 1992, making him one of only two coaches since UCLA’s John Wooden with such an accomplishment. In 2005-06, Krzyzewski passed Wooden to move into first on the chart of coaches who have led their respective schools to a No. 1 national ranking. Coach K has now led Duke to the top spot in the AP poll in 14 seasons, including nine of the last 13 years.
He and the Blue Devils have been a fixture on the national basketball scene with 15 consecutive NCAA Tournament berths from 1996-2010 and
To top off an incredible year in 2001, after Duke won its third national championship, Krzyzewski was named to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame class along with Temple’s John Chaney and former NBA star Moses Malone. The induction ceremony was held in Springfield,
“I hope that all of those youngsters who have played for me and the people who have worked with me will share in this honor,” he said. “My mom always told me to associate myself with great people and great institutions. I’ve tried to do that at the United States Military Academy and at Duke University, two of the great institutions in the world. As a result, I’ve been around some amazing people.
“I never thought I’d be worthy enough to be in the Basketball Hall of Fame. It’s not anything you set out trying to achieve. Basically, you go about your business and try to be as good as you can be all the time. Again, I get back to coaching great players and being with great assistants. They bring out the best in you.”