PITTSBURGH—Five NCAA championships? Check. First men's coach to reach 1,000 wins? Check.
Now, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski has one more summit to reach: the most Division I basketball wins in history, men’s or women’s. All he needs is one more victory.
With a win against No. 7 seed Rhode Island in the second round of the NCAA tournament Saturday at approximately 2:40 p.m. at PPG Paints Arena, Krzyzewski would pass legendary Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt, who racked up 1,098 career victories. Summitt coached the Volunteers until the end of the 2011-12 season before early onset dementia forced her to retire, and she died from the disease in 2016.
Krzyzewski said during Friday's media availability he didn’t know that he had tied Summitt’s record in Thursday’s win against Iona, and that he had been good friends with her.
"She would have won hundreds of more games. Pat could have coached men. She did coach women," Krzyzewski said. "She was as good a coach as there was in the country. She really was a pioneer and set up the glory that the women's game has right now. It's too bad that she contracted the health problems that she did...she's really great for our profession."
To pick up No. 1,099 and advance to the Sweet 16, the second-seeded Blue Devils (27-7) need to get past a familiar face: Dan Hurley.
The younger brother of ex-Duke star Bobby Hurley, who played in Durham from 1989-93, Dan met Krzyzewski through his brother’s recruiting process, forming a relationship that has continued throughout the years. The Hurley brothers faced off against each other in the 1992 Sweet 16 when Dan played for Seton Hall, with the Blue Devils coming out on top 81-69.
"We feel like we're in the same family," Krzyzewski said. "We love the Hurley family.... I grew up in a family where they worked and they showed up every day. They show up every day."
On the court, however, it might not be as friendly between the two teams. The Rams (26-7) come in fresh off an overtime win against 10th-seeded Oklahoma and boast a hyper-aggressive defense that is among the best in the nation at forcing turnovers.
Duke was relatively clean with the ball in its NCAA tournament opener, but coughed it up 17 times in a loss to North Carolina in its previous game.
In their losses against unranked competition like Rhode Island this season, turnovers have been the Blue Devils' undoing. In those four defeats, they coughed the ball up more than 17 times per game—and that likely won’t cut it against the Rams.
“They can be a very dangerous team because they attack you. They’re not a team that sits back and tries to contain the other team’s offense,” senior captain Grayson Allen said. “They’re picking guys up full-court, they’re getting after the ball and trying to get steals and turn that into offense. They’re a dangerous team that can beat any team in this tournament on any day.”
Led by a career night for Trevon Duval, Duke’s offense flowed beautifully against the Gaels after a prolonged downturn. Iona is by no means a defensive powerhouse—it ranks No. 220 in basketball statistician Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted efficiency metric—but the Blue Devils scored the most they had since January. Duke had averaged just 70.8 points per game in its five previous games, struggling mightily from 3-point range in particular, but caught fire Thursday.
After being a liability from the perimeter all season, Duval had his best game by far, going 4-of-5 from deep with the Gaels sagging off of him on defense.
“They were just backing up way too far off me. It was disrespectful, so I had to shoot,” Duval said. “I was confident. Every shot I took, it felt like it was going in.”
It will certainly be tough for Duke to match its 13-of-30 performance from 3-point range Saturday against a Rhode Island team that has allowed the fifth-fewest triples in the country.
But like Iona, the Rams are woefully undersized when compared to the Blue Devils’ giants down low. Rhode Island’s tallest regular stands at just 6-foot-8 on a team that starts four guards and has struggled on the boards, particularly on the defensive glass. Buoyed by Wendell Carter Jr. and Marvin Bagley III, Duke has been the best team in the nation in defensive rebounding.
Carter has been dealing with left Achilles' tendon soreness and played 24 minutes Thursday, scoring just nine points.
What the Rams lack in size, they make up for in experience. They start four seniors, including 6-foot-3 Jared Terrell, who is the team's leading scorer thanks in part to his 3-point shooting ability. Duke struggled initially to defend Iona’s perimeter, but adjusted at halftime to a 3-2 zone against a similarly guard-heavy team and held it to finish just 1-of-15 from deep after the break.
“They're a more experienced team than we are, but come game time, it's going to be a fight and it's going to be a battle,” Allen said. “And we're going to have to come out and play or else a tough team like that will just attack you and run you off the floor.”
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Managing Editor 2018-19, 2019-2020 Features & Investigations Editor
A member of the class of 2020 hailing from San Mateo, Calif., Ben is The Chronicle's Towerview Editor and Investigations Editor. Outside of the Chronicle, he is a public policy major working towards a journalism certificate, has interned at the Tampa Bay Times and NBC News and frequents Pitchforks.