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A16 sports
Thursday 3 March 2022
Retirement looms, but Krzyzewski's influence built to last

By AARON BEARD teams in 1991 and 1992. ference Tournament final
AP Basketball Writer "That's regardless of wheth- in New York and the NCAA
Mike Krzyzewski's unparal- er you coached with him championship game in
leled coaching career is or if you were a player, be- New Orleans on April 4.
down to a few basketball cause they'll have such in- Regardless of when or how
games, with no more than credible experiences and the end comes, Krzyze-
a month left before the re- memories of things that he wski's place is unques-
tiring Duke Hall of Famer did that you still use in your tioned among the greatest
walks off the sideline for the own situations. coaches in the history of
last time. "His legacy is going to con- American sports.
His influence on the sport tinue to grow through oth- He has a 1,196 career victo-
will remain long past that fi- ers that he's had an impact ries, more than any coach
nal farewell. The fingerprints on in their lives, and I'm defi- in men's or women's col-
of the man known simply as nitely one of those people." lege history. His five NCAA
"Coach K" are all over the Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski kisses the net after cutting it The 75-year-old Krzyzewski titles rank second to late
down following Duke's 61-59 win over Butler in the men's NCAA
highest levels of the game Final Four college basketball championship game Monday, coaches his final home UCLA great John Wooden
as he winds down his nearly April 5, 2010, in Indianapolis. game at Cameron Indoor on the men's side, while his
five-decade head-coach- Associated Press Stadium on Saturday, fit- resume includes a record-
ing career. tingly against rival North tying 12 Final Fours and
Nearly two dozen of his for- programs. And some of the basketball that believe in Carolina. At most, he has a record 127 weeks with
mer players currently are NBA's biggest stars of the his values and things that 10 games left in a career teams ranked at No. 1 in
on NBA rosters. Another past two decades have he felt were important," that began with five sea- The Associated Press men's
dozen or so are coaching won Olympic gold medals said Arizona State coach sons at Army followed by college basketball poll.
or working for NBA teams. under his direction. Bobby Hurley, the point 42 at Duke, assuming the "He's the best that's ever
There are others who lead "He's got a small army of guard on Krzyzewski's first Blue Devils reach both next done that in the modern
their own Division I college people that are working in two NCAA championship week's Atlantic Coast Con- basketball world," Syra-
cuse coach Jim Boeheim
said. "John Wooden won
10 championships, you can
never say anything but that.
But it's a different world to-
day. There have been a lot
of great coaches – there's
nobody close to what Mike
has done.
"He has given everything
to the game and helped
make the game what it is
today without any ques-
tion."
The numbers back up Boe-
heim's conviction.
Krzyzewski had 21 players as
of February on NBA rosters
— including current or for-
mer All-Stars Jayson Tatum,
Kyrie Irving, Zion Williamson
and Brandon Ingram – and
an ACC-record 27 players
last season.
Go back further, and NBA
teams have drafted 68 of
Krzyzewski's Blue Devils, with
42 as first-round picks and
three – Elton Brand in 1999,
Irving in 2011 and William-
son in 2019 – going No. 1
overall.
Duke notes that Krzyze-
wski has coached 113
NBA players between the
school and USA Basketball,
where Krzyzewski partnered
with former managing di-
rector Jerry Colangelo to
restructure the men's na-
tional team program. The
result: he managed egos
and meshed star talent like
LeBron James and the late
Kobe Bryant to thrice pro-
duce Olympic gold.q