Ever since Mike Krzyzewski captured career victory No. 903 to surpass his mentor, Bob Knight, Chronicle sports editors have received angry emails from readers when Krzyzewski is called the "all-time winningest head coach in college basketball."
You read that correctly. Avid followers of Duke basketball, reading Duke's student newspaper, were upset that they were bestowing the game's highest honor on their beloved, iconic head coach?
Surprisingly, this is true, but unsurprisingly, because that statement is at best a half-truth.
Kzyzewski's 903rd victory against Michigan State Nov. 15, 2011 made him the all-time winningest head coach in men's Division I history. By earning career victory No. 1,000 Sunday against St. John's, he is also the first coach in men's Division I history to reach that mark.
But he is not the first. By winning his 1,000th game and reaching perhaps the greatest milestone of his career, Krzyzewski now sits just 98 wins behind former Tennessee women's basketball head coach Pat Summitt for the most wins in the history of college basketball.
Why haven't we always put the qualifier "men's" in front of Krzyzewski's title as the most decorated man in college coaching? There are plenty of reasons, none of which are really that good. Sometimes we were lazy, others we lacked the specificity that is one of the hallmarks of good journalism. Maybe we thought adding one word would make the title too wordy, or maybe we subconsciously subscribed to the belief of many basketball pundits that the men's and women's games are played so differently that they might as well be different sports.
Often, our readers' pleas fell on deaf ears, likely out of stubbornness. Nobody likes to be told how to do their job, and journalists are a particularly headstrong breed—nothing is more aggravating than being fact-checked by a reader, except when that reader is right.
Realistically, the reasons why Summitt's name isn't heralded alongside college basketball's coaching Mount Rushmore of John Wooden, Adolph Rupp, Dean Smith, Krzyzewski and Knight is likely rooted in sexism—whether because Summitt is a woman or coaches in the women's game. But her coaching resume stands up to that of any man or woman in history.
Summitt led her teams to eight national titles, trailing only Wooden and Connecticut women's head coach Geno Auriemma. In doing so, she won 1,098 games—an other-worldy 84.1 percent—in 38 seasons. She led the United States to the gold medal in the 1984 Olympic Games and was named National Coach of the Year seven times, all while being paid and respected a fraction of her male counterparts.
None of this is meant to rain on Coach K's parade. He and I both know that nothing I write could affect the magnitude of his accomplishment or the way it is perceived. I bring Summitt's accomplishments to light because it represents the last milestone Krzyzewski has to chase—his last mountain to climb.
Krzyzewski has always pursued nothing but championships—records and milestones have been nothing but the byproducts of that. But for a man who, at age 67, has had his career measured by countdowns to the next achievement, it might not be the worst thing in the world to have one record left to pursue.
A decade ago, many thought Krzyzewski would never coach long enough to reach this milestone, including Coach K himself—but a revitalization due in large part to his involvement with USA Basketball has left the college basketball world now questioning whether or not he'll ever walk away from the game he loves. Krzyzewski's 903rd win came just three games into my freshman year, and it took him three-and-a-half seasons to win the 97 games to reach No. 1,000.
Another 97 victories will have Krzyzewski sitting on the doorstep of tying Summitt's mark of 1,098.
Should Duke continue on its current pace, that would put Krzyzewski's next record pursuit late in the 2017-18 or early in the 2018-19 season. Prior to last season, Krzyzewski made a commitment to Duke when he re-upped with USA Basketball through the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. After the Blue Devils were bounced from the NCAA tournament by Mercer last year, Krzyzewski called a press conference where he laid out to us his five year plan, theoretically keeping him on the sidelines through the end of 2018-19.
With two top-10 matchups against Notre Dame and Virginia this week, it looks like it's time to start Krzyzewski's next countdown clock. In the meantime, we'll make sure we use the qualifier "men's" in front of Coach K's place atop the all-time wins list.
When he finally reaches the Summitt, he'll be the last reader to correct our mistake.
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