Coach K: "There’s a certain amount of toughness through experiencing failure at a critical time"

Krzyzewski compares last year's Virginia team to 1991 Blue Devils

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was asked about Virginia’s NCAA championship last season, coming a year after the Cavaliers’ embarrassing first-round defeat—when the Cavaliers became the first one-seed to lose to a 16 in tournament history.

Coach K thought the tough loss helped strengthen Virginia, much like Duke’s embarrassing 1990 loss to UNLV in the most lopsided title game ever, a year before the Blue Devils upset Vegas in the Final Four, en route to their first national title.

Both teams were the butt of jokes, nationwide, which helped harden them to adversity in the following season’s run to the title.

“Returning lot of guys who have experienced a setback, who are good, helps,” Krzyzewski said. “That’s something we were talking about earlier, in a question about young teams. Young teams haven’t lost in the NCAA Tournament. They haven’t had that crushing defeat whether it be a first round game or an Elite (Eight) game or a championship game. So there’s a certain amount of toughness through experiencing failure at such an exposed, critical time.”

Virginia’s loss toughened them.

“They were armed differently,” Krzyzewski said. “Virginia was armed differently as a result of how Tony (Bennett) and his team handled it. Just like we were armed differently (in 1991).”

Of course, the 1991 Blue Devils had another big advantage that Virginia didn’t.

“We also added a guy named Grant Hill,” Krzyzewski said, “which, he had not experienced that level of defeat, but he had great empathy for his teammates and understood it and used it to his advantage.”