Coach K Wins Thousandth Game as a Ranked Team at Duke
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was pleased with his team’s performance after the 88-64 win over Virginia Tech on Saturday.
“Our guys played really well tonight,” he said. “They played hard. They played outstanding defense. They cared for the ball, rebounded—really pleased with the win.”
Duke struggled in December when the Blue Devils played Virginia Tech the first time, needing to come back from a double-digit deficit with a second-half rally.
“Well, we were prepared,” Krzyzewski said of the difference between the two games. “We had preparation time. The last time we played, we went there after a 9:30 Tuesday game against Michigan State, coming back at 4:30 in the morning on Wednesday and travelling on Thursday. For them (the Hokies), you need preparation time, and also at that time, we weren’t ready to play a five out.”
Tech has five players who stay on the perimeter, instead of having someone inside like a traditional team, which is known as a five out.
“We’ve played now against five out, and Vernon (Carey Jr.)’s played really well, Javin (DeLaurier), and so we had preparation time, but we also were better then we were then, and we played well.”
Duke had a rough night earlier in the week, losing by 22 at NC State, but the effort that was lacking in that game was back for Tech “We’re 23-4, I think we’ve done it almost every game. The key is them, and they’ve been great. They had a bad night, and they didn’t have a bad night tonight, so we’re 1-1 this week.”
The victory was Krzyzewski’s thousandth with Duke as a ranked team.
“It’s hard to believe. I think I’ve coached over 1,300 games here, and almost 90% of them have been as a ranked team, and to have 1,000 wins as a ranked team is kind of mind-boggling. We have crazy numbers. Just like A few weeks ago we had our 500th win against ACC competition, and for me, because we don’t look back, it’s hard to believe that that’s happened and it’s taken a lot of years and a lot of really good players, but that’s something we’re very proud of, the consistent excellence I guess is what we would call it, hopefully we can continue to pursue that.”
