Because It's March, Krzyzewski Talks About NCAA Tournament

Mark your calendars, boys and girls: It's officially March!

And to get the month started off right, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski talked extensively how he thought the selection process should work after Duke's big win against Virginia Tech on the last day in February. Here are some excerpts:

"What should happen in the NCAA Tournament is once you get your conference champions--there are 31 I think--from then on, it doesn't matter what you do in your conference. It matters what you have done your whole season. To put other criteria in, like what you have done in your last 10 games, what your conference record is, is wrong. Because not everybody plays the same last 10 games, and not everybody is in the same conference, but everybody plays a whole season."

"After the 31, it is the 34 best. Twelve of them can out of our conference. Six, four, 10, it shouldn't matter. Conference affiliation after you pick the conference champions should not have anything to do with it."

"Virginia Tech has had a great year. They have been in hellacious games. And again, because of a skewed schedule, you can't look at conference records the same way either. Say Virginia Tech ends up 8-8, and what if they end up 7-9? What if they end up 9-7, then there is no sweat. My feeling is the top eight teams in our league, they all need to be in. And let's see what happens with Miami, Maryland, they might be nine depending on these last few games. But it should have nothing to do with conference record. Nothing. I just think that's such a big mistake, and commentators, the people that analyze these things, I can't believe they even talk about that kind of stuff."

"A lot of people don't even know who is in the conference. The people who say those things, they couldn't tell you the difference between Notre Dame's schedule in the Big East and Cincinnati's. You look at it. I'm for both of them, don't get me wrong, but if you don't think the schedule is different, you're nuts. So why are you looking at conference record? Same thing in our conference. Because of the expansion, it's a different schedule."

"I have the upmost respect for Virginia Tech and what they do. They deserve to be in the tournament. But they are not the only ones in our conference. What the heck, we are one possession away from them beating us. Are you kidding me? And put somebody else from another conference in that schedule and see if they would have an 8-8 record."

After going off on a three-minute tangent, Krzyzewski jokingly asked if that was enough and if he felt enough like the governor of Virginia. When a reporter tried to turn the conversation back toward the direction of the afternoon's game, Krzyzewski told him to wait while he thought of more things. He might have ended his sermon on a lighthearted note, but the message he proclaimed was serious: Look, selection committee, take the 34 best at-large teams. Don't let strength of schedule be a negative factor.