LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Blue Devils and Cardinals met just two years ago in the 2013 Elite Eight, but Saturday's contest at the KFC Yum! Center marked a new era in the teams’ relationship.
The Cardinals are in their first year in a stacked ACC featuring other former Big East powers in Syracuse, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh, so Saturday’s 63-52 victory for No. 4 Duke was head coach Mike Krzyzewski's first opportunity to visit the $238 million KFC Yum! Center, which opened in 2010.
From the start, the contest was different from the typical ACC road game—Krzyzewski received polite applause rather than the customary boos showered upon Duke's head coach at most conference venues.
“What a beautiful arena, the people have been great,” Krzyzewski said after the game. “What a great setting, what a great addition to the ACC, to have this tradition put in with the other traditions of our great conference. It’s magnificent. I knew before I came here because I love [Louisville head coach] Rick [Pitino], he and I are great friends, but until you come here and get a feel for things… what a fabulous, fabulous addition to our conference. Thank you for coming in.”
The Blue Devils employed a zone defense throughout the game, which raised an interesting question about how Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim—who is famous for his 2-3 zone and is good friends with both Krzyzewski and Pitino—would react when he saw that Duke had played so much zone in one of its biggest games of the year.
“He’ll be happy,” Krzyzewski said. “Hopefully he will, although Rick is a good friend of his too. That’s one of the [many] good things. Our league, people talk about the level of teams and coaches and that we have so many good coaches in the league, but we [also] have a lot of older coaches who got in it for the right reasons.”
For Krzyzewski, one of the main benefits of having such decorated coaches to represent the conference is the appreciation they have not only for talented players and teams, but also for the bigger picture in college basketball.
The respect for the game was evident when the fans received Krzyzewski before the game and also when first-team Preseason AP All-Americans Jahlil Okafor and Montrezl Harrell got tied up when Harrell tried to take the ball from Duke’s center. Saturday’s environment at the KFC Yum! Center was a hostile one for the road team, but there was also a great deal of respect from both sides for the greatness of the two powerhouse programs.
“We understand the game and how big the game is, that’s why me coming into this environment I’m saying “Whoa, this is good for the game,’” Krzyzewski said. “Our coaches [and players] understand that. Rick could not be more cordial afterwards. There’s that type of camaraderie in the league.”
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