Coach K Michael William Krzyzewski is an American college basketball coach. He has served as the head coach at Duke University since 1980, where he has led the Blue Devils to five national titles, 12 Final Fours, 15 ACC tournament championships, and 13 ACC regular season titles.
Coach K: Post game| Press conference| Wins now| Career wins
Post game:
No. 2 Duke beat No. 7 Michigan State 85-76 behind a game-high 19 points from star freshman forward Paolo Banchero to reach the second weekend of the West Region, setting up a matchup with No. 3 Texas Tech.
Sophomore center Mark Williams added 15 points and five blocks. Michigan State was led by forward Gabe Brown, who had 18 points.
Press Conference:
Duke was able to fend off the Spartans despite losing freshman guard A.J. Griffin, who suffered what appeared to be a lower-leg injury to his left leg while driving in the paint with 8:24 remaining in the second half. Griffin never returned but did remain on the Duke bench.
The Blue Devils were up 39-35 at halftime and pushed the lead to as high as nine points two minutes into the second half. Michigan State was ahead 16-15 with 11:11 left in the first half but didn’t retake the lead until going ahead 68-65 with 5:24 left, and pushed the lead to 70-65 with a pair of free throws on the next possession.
Wins now:
But Duke closed on a 20-6 run, taking a 75-74 lead on a lay-up from Banchero with 2:05 remaining and pushing the edge to 78-74 on a 3-pointer from guard Jeremy Roach a minute later.
The win sends Krzyzewski to the Sweet 16 for the 26th time as he chases his sixth national championship. Duke has advanced out of the first weekend in five of the program’s past six tournament appearances.
“For a young group, they showed incredible guts,” Krzyzewski said after the game on CBS. “It wasn’t any coaching. I’m so proud of them. … It looked like our ship was sinking.”
Career Wins:
Krzyzewski, the NCAA’s all-time Division I men’s basketball wins leader, enters Sunday’s game with a career record of 1,199-366.
A win against the Spartans would give him 1,200 across his 47 seasons. Coach K also has 98 career NCAA Tournament wins, the most ever, and would hit 100 with an Elite 8 run.
Team: Duke
