Coach K’s Last Season: Extra Pressure?
On September 28, Coach Mike Krzyzewski and the Duke University men’s basketball team held a media day for the local media.
With this being Coach Krzyzewski’s last season coach, many players spoke on the magnitude of this season and how they’re approaching this year.
Coach K, who announced in June that the 2021-22 season will be his final year of coaching, downplayed the situation. “We try not to use words like ‘last’ and ‘savor’ because I am approaching this year like any other year.”
In 46 years as a head coach at Army West Point (1975-80) and Duke (1980-present), Krzyzewski amassed an NCAA-record 1,170 victories. In 41 seasons in Durham, he led Duke to five NCAA national championships – 1991, 1992, 2001, 2010 and 2015 – and 12 Final Fours.
MIKE KRZYZEWSKI CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
- Led Duke to five national championships in 1991, 1992, 2001, 2010 and 2015
- Went 88-1 with six gold medals as the head coach of the U.S. Men’s National Team, including 24-0 in the Olympics with Olympic gold medals in 2008, 2012 and 2016
- Eight-time National Coach of the Year – a total of 12 honors
- Coached Duke to the Final Four 12 times — tied for most in NCAA history
- Won 12 ACC regular season championships
- Won 15 ACC Tournament championships – an ACC record
- Five-time ACC Coach of the Year and five-time NABC District Coach of the Year
- Achieved a final AP No. 1 ranking eight times — more than double the next best team in the Coach K era
- Has spent 126 weeks ranked No. 1 in the AP poll, 556 weeks ranked in the top 10 of the AP poll and 649 weeks ranked in the top 25 AP poll – each of those figures are the most by a coach in poll history
- Has won 67 ACC Tournament games — the most in league history
- His 97 NCAA Tournament wins and 35 NCAA Tournament appearances each stand as NCAA records
- Duke’s eight No. 1 seeds under Coach K are the most by a coach in NCAA Tournament history
- He has more 20-win seasons (36) and 30-win seasons (15) than any coach in NCAA history
- Has coached 37 All-America selections to a total of 51 honors – the most by any active coach
- Under Krzyzewski, nine Duke players have earned 11 National Player of the Year honors – the most by an active coach
- The Krzyzewski era has produced six Blue Devils to earn nine National Defensive Player of the Year honors – more than double the next closest team in college basketball
- Has coached 28 NBA Lottery picks – the most in Draft history – and a total of 67 NBA Draft selections, including 41 first-round picks
- His 1,170 career wins are most in NCAA history, while his 1,097 victories at Duke are the most in NCAA history at one school and his 517 ACC wins are the most in league history
- Served as the President of the National Basketball Coaches Association in 1998-99
- Named America’s Best Coach by Time/CNN in 2001
- A two-time inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, in 2001 for his individual coaching career and in 2010 as part of the collective induction of the Olympic Dream Team
- Inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006, and the United States Olympic Hall of Fame in 2009
- Inducted to the Army West Point Sports Hall of Fame in 2009, the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame in 2010 and the Duke Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011
- Named the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 2011
- Presented the Wayman Tisdale Humanitarian Award in 2012 and the Lapchick Character Award in 2015
- Has served on the board of the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research since its inception in 1993
- Has served as an honorary chairman of the Duke Children’s Hospital
- Founded the Emily Krzyzewski Center – a community center in Durham, named in honor of his late mother, whose mission is to inspire economically disadvantaged students to dream big, act with character and purpose, strive for academic excellence and reach their highest potential as future citizen leaders