Coach K is On the Fast Track to History

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Mike Krzyzewski has his right foot on the accelerator and is closing fast on the history books.

Dean Smith can see Coach K practically on his back bumper right now, and Bob Knight need only glance at his rear view mirror to view Krzyzewski’s hard charge.

With No. 1 Duke’s 82-70 victory Saturday over Butler at the Izod Center, Coach K won his 876th career game and moved into a tie with Adolph Rupp for third place on the all-time wins list.

“I’m gonna win more games, I think,” Krzyzewski cracked. “Coach Rupp, God bless him, is not.”

Assuming Duke wins home games with Bradley (Dec.8) and St. Louis (Dec. 11), Coach K could tie Smith in a Dec. 20 home game with Elon and move into sole possession of second place with win No. 880 Dec. 29 versus UNC Greensboro.

He would then begin his assault on Knight, his mentor and former boss at Army, beginning Jan. 2 against Miami.

Now, here’s where it gets really interesting.

A year ago, the Blue Devils played 39 games, finishing 34-5 after Gordon Hayward’s desperation half-court shot missed in the final seconds of the national championship game in Indianapolis, giving Duke a 61-59 victory over Butler.

If unbeaten Duke (8-0) wins that same number of games this season, Coach K would tie Knight for first place all-time.

If Duke gets to win No. 35 this season, Krzyzewski would pass Knight and become the winningest college coach ever.

“Thank goodness I’m at Duke,” Krzyzewski said. “Duke’s given me a chance for 31 years. And the school that played before our game, Army. For 36 years I’ve been at two schools that give me a chance to coach really great young men. I mean, the best. The best. And at Duke, the caliber of player is really high, and you get great players like that, you should win. And we have won a lot.”

Keep in mind that this is a man who in the last two years won an Olympic gold medal (2008), a FIBA World Championship (2010) and his fourth NCAA title (2010).

Unlikely as it sounds, imagine if he were able to add an undefeated season to that resume as well?

The last college team to go unbeaten in a season was the 1975-76 Indiana squad coached by — you guessed it — Bob Knight.

Imagine if Krzyzewski were to not only eclipse Knight’s all-time victories record in one season, but match his unbeaten season as well?

The case against that happening is easy to make.

Somewhere along the road, Duke will falter.

Even though the ACC is down and no other team in the conference is ranked, Duke could slip and lose in any one of a number of tricky road games: Jan. 12 at Florida State, Jan. 19 at N.C. State or Feb. 2 at Maryland.

Who knows, maybe they somehow navigate the entire ACC slate unbeaten and then lose at North Carolina in the last game of the regular season March 5? The Tar Heels did pull out a gritty 75-73 victory Saturday over No. 10 Kentucky.

The case for Duke going unbeaten is harder to make, but not impossible to imagine.

Having beaten then-No. 4 Kansas State and No. 6 Michigan State, Duke doesn’t have a single ranked opponent on its schedule the rest of the way. (That could change if Carolina jumps into the Top 25 and stays there.).

The other factor here is the most basic.

With four potential first-round draft picks on its roster and a solid bench, Duke is really, really good.

“We go into any game thinking that we’re going to win,” Duke senior Kyle Singler said. “We’ve got a lot of talent. As long as we’re getting better as a team, I wouldn’t see why going into games we wouldn’t think we would win.”

Whether they go undefeated or slip along the way, it’s only a matter of time before Coach K leaves his mentor, and every other man who ever coached the game, in the rear view mirror.

CAREER WINS

1.Bob Knight                 902

2.Dean Smith                879

3(t). Mike Krzyzewski      876

3(t). Adolph Rup            876

5. Jim Boeheim             836

6(t). Jim Phelan                830

6(t). Jim Calhoun              830

8. Eddie Sutton             804

9. Lefty Driesell             786

10(t). Luke Olson           780

10(t). Lou Henson          780