This marks the sixth time that the U.S. Military Academy has presented the award but just the fourth time corps squad athletes and coaches were eligible to win. The first two awards honored cadets who compete in company athletics and competitive club sports. All three categories received recognition on Thursday.

Peck and Rodriguez were presented with their awards during a special ceremony in the mess hall on Thursday afternoon. Krzyzewski, a 1969 USMA graduate and now Duke head basketball coach, was on hand to help present the awards.

The awards recognize West Point athletes and coaches for their outstanding commitment to the development of noble character through athletic participation and leadership. The cadet recipient exemplifies the Army values of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage both on-and-off the “fields of friendly strife.”

The coach recipient is an exceptional leader who exemplifies the Army Values of integrity, respect, selfless service, duty, honor, loyalty, and personal courage.  This individual does much more than win games – he or she earns the respect and trust of athletes and makes a profound impact on their lives both as athletes and officers.

Dubbed the “Coach K” awards, Peck and Rodriguez were recognized for not only their playing and coaching accolades but for their commitment to excellence and respect for their teammates, opponents and sport.

Thursday’s honor was another in a long line of off-the-field awards for Rodriguez. A first-team CoSIDA Academic All-American, Rodriguez won both the National Football Foundation’s William V. Campbell Trophy, presented to the nation’s top football scholar-athlete, and the Amateur Athletic Union’s James E. Sullivan Award, which is given to the top amateur athlete in the nation. Rodriugez, Peyton Manning and Tim Tebow are the only three players ever to win both awards. The Fairfax, Va., native was selected one of three captains in 2011 despite an unclear health status. After leading the team in tackles in 2009, Rodriguez missed the entire 2010 season. He overcame the career-threatening back injury to start 11 of the Black Knights’ 12 games last season. He was fifth on the team in tackles with 59 and accounted for a team-high three takeaways (one interception, two fumble recoveries).

Peck guided the Black Knights to their eighth straight Patriot League Tournament title in 2012, defeating arch-rival Navy in the championship match for the second straight season. A 10-time Patriot League Coach of the Year, Peck has guided the Black Knights to 52 straight regular-season conference victories, including a perfect 5-0 record this season. Peck has mentored four of the last five Patriot League Players of the Year, and this season he became the first Army tennis coach to collect 300 career wins as the Black Knights also exceeded the 20-win mark for the fifth consecutive year.

Mike Krzyzewski Teaching Character Through Sport Award Winners
2012
Intercollegiate: Coach Paul Peck (women’s tennis) and Andrew Rodriguez (football)
Competitive Club: Robert Grieser (fencing) and Ryan Johnson (boxing)
Company Athletics: Artie Coughlin (football) and Anastasia Cale (soccer)

2011
Intercollegiate: Coach Rich Ellerson (football) and Nathan Hedgecock (men’s basketball)
Competitive Club: Lt. Col. (R) Duston Saunders (pistol) and Terrell Anthony (men’s boxing)
Company Athletics: Maj.Adam Hodges (team handball) and Bend Ordiway (floor hockey)

2010
Intercollegiate: Coach Troy Engle (track & field, cross country) and Matt Kyler (wrestling)
Competitive Club: Coach Emilio Claudio (judo) and Jack Gibson (team handball)
Company Athletics: Coach John Shireman (combative grappling) and Judson Noel (athletic grappling)

2009
Intercollegiate: Coach Alma Kovaci (volleyball) and Zach McKelvie (hockey)
Competitive Club: Coach Ray Barone (boxing) and Courtney Miller (crew)
Company Athletics: Maj. Brad Fenske (cycling ) and Charles Harris (football)

2008
John Harmeling, team handball; Coach John McVan (company athletics basketball)

2007
Cory Kastl (boxing) and Joe Imbriaco (triathlon); Coach Marie Johnson (women’s lacrosse)

Source: http://www.goarmysports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/042612aad.html

The Wake County middle schools, aided by a significant grant from General Parts International, Inc. / CARQUEST, have been participating this year in Ticket to Reading Rewards (TTRR), a supplemental middle school literacy program. TTRR uses external motivations, including role models and incentives, to motivate students to read significantly more books outside the curriculum. TTRR strives to create an atmosphere where reading and academic achievement is celebrated by all students. The program is provided at no charge to schools or students with funding provided through grants, gifts and the support of the National Association of Basketball Coaches Foundation (NABCF).

Krzyzewski will be joined by General Parts International, Inc. President and Chairman O. Temple Sloan, III, Wake County Board Vice-chair Keith Sutton and Dr. Ruth Steidinger, WCPSS Senior Director of Secondary Education, Middle Schools. The nine schools participating in this pilot program include East Garner Magnet Middle, East Millbrook Magnet Middle, East Wake Middle, Ligon Magnet Middle, Longview Middle, Moore Square Museums Magnet Middle, Wake Forest Rolesville Middle, West Millbrook Middle, and Zebulon Magnet Middle.

The NABCF coordinates visits to middle schools by college basketball coaches, who speak on the importance of reading and academic achievement to motivate students. Participating students receive tickets to attend collegiate basketball games and invitations to watch team practices. These opportunities and reading-oriented incentives help these middle school students identify with the TTRR goals to encourage reading.

More than 150,000 students in 40 states now take part in TTRR, which was created in 2002. The initial goal was to create compelling reasons for middle school students to read outside the classroom and to improve reading comprehension and reading scores.

The National Association of Basketball Coaches Foundation, Inc., was organized exclusively for charitable and educational purposes, and to support the charitable and education purposes of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. The NABC Foundation is the founder and sponsor of TTRR (Ticket to Reading Rewards), a national literacy program targeting middle school aged students. In addition, the Foundation operates the College Basketball Experience (CBE), an experiential facility which also includes the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. Opened in October, 2007, the CBE is adjacent to the Sprint Center in downtown Kansas City, Mo. For more information, go to www.nabcfoundation.org.

General Parts International, Inc. is the parent Company of CARQUEST Auto Parts, which has more than 3,100 locations throughout North America. For more information, please visit CARQUEST.com. The National Association of Basketball Coaches Foundation, Inc., was organized to support the charitable and education purposes of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. For more information, go to www.nabcfoundation.org.

The PNC Center is located at 1400 Edwards Mill Road, Raleigh, NC 27607 Tel: (919) 861 – 2300.

Source: http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=22724&SPID=1845&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205416361&DB_OEM_ID=4200

Now it’s 2012 and nine high school seniors, all women, in Durham, North Carolina are dreaming too. Some dream of going into humanitarian aid. Others want to be accountants.

But they all aspire to one day be the first in their families to graduate from college, a dream that The Emily Krzyzewski Center’s Scholars to College program is helping make a reality.

“We’re told it’s all about dreams,” said 17-year-old Brittany Lambright, who is part of the inaugural graduating class of the Scholars to College program and hopes to be an orthodonist. “But you have to have the plan to back those dreams up.”

Named after Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s mother, the Durham center draws its mission from the skills that Krzyzewski learned as a young boy at his community center in Chicago. The program, established in 2008, is part of the Emily K Center’s larger “K to College” model that pledges to serve academically-focused, low-income students who seek to achieve in school, gain entry to college and break the cycle of poverty in their families through out-of-school programming.

Although each student enrolled in the Scholars to College program qualifies for free and reduced lunch, the Emily K Center recognizes that financial barriers are just one of many obstacles that face low-income students in their pursuit of higher education. Implementing the program, targeting ninth to 12th grade students, the Center offers personal college admissions counseling, standardized testing preparation and financial advising including exposure to different scholarship opportunities. “Kids can articulate that they want to go to college, but it is another thing to maintain that level of success through your high school career to actually get there,” Executive Director Adam Eigenrauch said. “The program is about demystifying the system.”

Eigenrauch, who has devoted more than 10 years to North Carolina’s education system, is just one of many dedicated staff members at the Center. Explaining the Center’s process for recruiting students, Eigenrauch said the program demands considerable family involvement. Although the students are not hand selected by the Center, the structure of the program facilitates a commitment that sets students apart from their peers.

“They are special kids, but certainly not unique kids,” Eigenrauch said. “There are kids all over Durham who have potential and want to work hard and do both of those things and don’t do it in a way that results in college. The thing that really stands out is the commitment.”

Brittany said her mother, like the other scholars’ parents, has made her children’s education a priority. After beginning college but discontinuing her studies due to economic constraints, she sought out better college preparation for her daughter at Emily K.

“Some of the parents have said to me that they don’t know where their family would be without this program,” lead counselor Jennifer Umvarger said. “Brittany’s mom feels very strongly about the program and she has a real strong desire to see her child successful.”

Four years since the commencement of the program, the first class of seniors boasts more than 20 college acceptance letters from five states and more than $120,000 in scholarship opportunities. Despite the impressive accolades of these young students, they all expressed anxiety over the prospect of financing their college education. The Center has put the students in a position to get into their dream colleges. Now, financial aid packages and scholarship opportunities will decide where they will actually study.

“I can dream all day, but the finances have to be there as well,” Brittany said. “We are trying to focus on graduating with the minimum amount of debt possible.”

High school senior Vianey Martinez carried around a dictionary when she moved to the United States. When she was nine years old, her family moved to Durham to reunite with her father who had left Mexico earlier in search for a better way to support his loved ones. In the beginning Vianey cried frequently, missing her family and friends from home and scared about not knowing the language. But, dictionary in hand, she made learning the language of her new home a priority, setting her apart from her fellow English as a Second Language peers.

“Moving was a very drastic change for my family,” Vianey recounts. “I figured I had no other option but to learn the language. I wasn’t going to be able to go back.”

Given the sacrifices her parents have made for her and her younger brother, going to college has always been the only option. But the inability to properly communicate to her parents the rigorous and competitive application process has been frustrating.

“My family doesn’t know a whole lot about going to college and the fact that they don’t speak English makes it even harder,” Vianey said. “I think my parents just thought college applications were just a basic application that asked you some personal information.” But after joining Emily K last year, Vianey said her parents are more at ease knowing that there are people motivating their daughter to reach her full potential.

Recently admitted to several colleges in North Carolina, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Meredith College and Elon University, she said going to college close to home is important.

“I know they are here for me and I think it is the fair thing for me to stay close,” Vianey said.

Still awaiting financial aid packages and scholarship decisions, she said Meredith is her first choice because of its small college feel, but ultimately she will attend whatever college offers her the most financial support.

Carey Cabrera knows all too well what Vianey is going through. Passionate about music, singing and the arts, she is a senior at Durham School of the Arts with aspirations to go into humanitarian aid. At her high school, she said there is one college counselor for all 170 seniors. But at the Emily K Center, she shares her head counselor with only two other girls­—support she needs as the daughter of a single mother with five children.

“College is such a big step. It is a milestone and you need guidance,” she said. “My mom doesn’t have the time or energy to make sure I have all my college essays down and read over it all. I feel like I needed a way to get a handle on all of that, and that is definitely what I have gotten here.”

After taking advantage of a summer SAT class offered by the Emily K Center, Carey was able to boost her score more than 200 points. She is convinced that it was those 200 points, and the constant guidance of the Center, that earned her admittance to her reach universities: McCalaester College and Wellesley College. Now she just has to figure out how to pay for it.

“I was discouraged about college and finance,” she admits. “But coming to Emily K and seeing that there are all these different ways to pay for college has been really encouraging.”

Eigenrauch said the Center is aware of the large financial component associated with each student’s ability to attend college. But counselors don’t let that reality affect students’ drive. Instead, the Center communicates to students that the more attractive they are as a college student, the more options they will have once financial aid packages roll in.

“Our goal is to help you get into college, but getting into college and going are not one and the same,” he said. “Being able to afford it is a part of it. Let’s not do high school just to do high school, but let’s do high school in a way that positions you to get into college.”

The benefits of the Scholars to College program have extended beyond the nine girls. Carey, like many of the other girls, has taken it upon herself to help her peers outside of the program navigate the college process, armed with the skills and strategies that they have learned at the Center.

“I have friends in different social groups, some are more academic than others,” Carey said. “They are really smart—I know they could go to college, but they don’t have the resources and the motivation. I am just really grateful that I am lucky enough to have those resources and that I have Emily K.”

Carey acknowledges the lofty price tag associated with her private education dreams. But she said, despite money always being an object in her family, her mother was always an advocate for her education.

“My mother always told me, ‘Don’t feel disadvantaged. Do what you want to do, we’ll figure it out,” she said.

When asked who their heroes were, the young women did not look to their favorite athlete or the most recent American Idol. Instead, Carey, Vianey, Brittany and others all named their parents. Carey applauded her mother for raising five kids while still maintaining a full-time job. Vianey said her parents, still not able to speak English and desperately missing their family, have remained in the United States as a sacrifice for their children’s future. And Brittany is thankful for all the hours her mother puts in during the night shift at work.

“They have always done the things that they do for me and my brother so we can have more than they did,” Vianey said. “I think they sometimes think that they are not supporting us as much as they could be, but they are always there for us.”

Krzyewski’s passion for basketball is distinct from Carey’s love of singing, Vianey’s love of numbers and Brittany’s passion for orthodontics. But what the young women have in common with their benefactor is a devoted family and a community center helping them to achieve their dreams. Providing him with an example that he would follow for life, Krzyzewski’s parents, including his mother, who the Center memorializes, set a foundation for his future success. As these girls sit on the precipice of their college dreams, they will never forget how their parents supported them in their dreams. Or how the Emily K Center gave them the tools to actually get there.

Source: http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/graduates

Krzyzewski, who has spent more than three decades as the head coach at Duke and led his team to four national championships and 11 trips to the Final Four, will be honored the same night the Wayman Tisdale Freshman of the Year Award will be presented in an event at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. The awards dinner is presented by Devon and hosted by the Oklahoma City Downtown Club.

The Humanitarian Award honors an individual involved in college basketball who has made a significantly positive impact on society. Legendary ESPN and hall of fame announcer Dick Vitale received the inaugural award last year. The award’s namesake, Wayman Tisdale, died in May 2009 after a two-year battle with cancer.

Krzyzewski is also the coach of the United States men’s national basketball team, whom he led to a gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2010 FIBA World Championships. He was an assistant coach on the 1992 “Dream Team.”

On November 15, 2011 Krzyzewski led Duke to a 74-69 victory over Michigan State at Madison Square Garden to become the coach with the most wins in NCAA Division I men’s basketball history. Krzyzewski ‘s 903rd victory surpassed the previous record of 902 held by his former coach, Bobby Knight. Just last month, Coach K was named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year.

“This has been a landmark year for Coach K and having him as our recipient this year seems most appropriate,” says Drew Shields, 2012 chairman of the Wayman Tisdale Freshman of the Year Award Advisory Board. “He is one of the few people in college basketball to have accomplished as much off the court as he has on.”

Coach K’s charitable activities have included the establishment and funding of the Emily Krzyzewski Center, a community center in Durham named after his mother. The Center’s mission is to inspire economically disadvantaged students to dream big, act with character and purpose, strive for academic excellence, and reach their highest potential as future citizen leaders. In addition, he has been active in raising funds and supporting Duke Children’s Hospital, The Children’s Miracle Network, and the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

Krzyzewski will share the stage in April with the NCAA college basketball’s outstanding Wayman Tisdale Freshman Player of the Year as selected by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA). That selection will be announced at the NCAA Final Four in New Orleans at the USBWA Champions Breakfast. The player and his coach are then expected to be in Oklahoma City April 16 for the awards dinner where the recipient will receive the crystal sculpture designed in the likeness of Wayman Tisdale.

The Wayman Tisdale Freshman of the Year Award and the Wayman Tisdale Humanitarian Award are presented by Devon while produced by Access Sports, an Oklahoma City-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization committed to supporting various charitable causes, including funding prosthetic devices for needy individuals through the Wayman L. Tisdale Foundation, educational scholarships through the United States Basketball Writers Associations, and funding of youth basketball programs throughout the state of Oklahoma through the Wayman’s Lightning Basketball League.

Tables and sponsorship information are available for the April 16 event at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum at the Tisdale Award website, www.access-sports.net, or by calling Scott Hill at 405-640-0406 or via e-mail at scott.hill@access-sports.net .

Krzyzewski is one of 48 top college basketball coaches participating in the challenge, which invites fans to vote over an eight-week period that began on January 18. In total, Infiniti will contribute more than $300,000 to selected charities during the competition.

To vote, visit the official Infiniti Coaches Charity Challenge link on ESPN.com or click the link below:
http://promo.espn.go.com/espn/contests/infiniti/2012/

The first round of voting lasts six weeks and features four brackets of 12 coaches paired by region. Fans can vote for Coach K up to four times per day by visiting the East Region coaching group link above.

The winning coach will be announced on March 9, 2012.

The magazine’s editors have chosen each honoree based on the principles established in 1954, when runner Roger Bannister was honored as SPORTS ILLUSTRATED’s first Sportsman: “While the victory may have been his or hers, it is not for the victory alone that he or she is honored. Rather, it is for the quality of their effort and manner of their striving.”

Says McDonell: “The voices of those who have been inspired by Pat Summitt and Mike Krzyzewski echo from everywhere and will continue for decades. What they have achieved through their coaching and, more importantly, their teaching places them among history’s transcendent figures. It is an honor to now include them in the select group of Sportsmen and Sportswomen.”

In this year’s Sportswoman/Sportsman feature, basketball Hall of Fame senior writer Alexander Wolff writes that the legacy of Summitt and Krzyzewski goes far beyond their record-breaking victory totals: “More than that-so much more-are the roads each has traveled over the course of careers that can be measured in Presidents Met on White House visits with Team (four in her case, three in his). For their endurance, for their adaptability, for their genius for hatching from adversity even more success, and for their willingness to take up causes beyond the comfort of their own campuses-indeed, for modeling what it means to be public diplomats as well as great coaches-we honor them as SI’s 2011 Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year.”

Summitt and Krzyzewski join UCLA’s John Wooden and North Carolina’s Dean Smith to round out a veritable Mount Rushmore of college basketball coaches who have received this award.  In 1972, Wooden, who had won his eighth national title in nine seasons, was selected along with Billie Jean King. Smith was honored in 1997, the same year he set the then NCAA wins record and announced his retirement. Other coaches named Sportsman include Joe Paterno (1986); manager Terry Francona (2004, with the Boston Red Sox); Herb Brooks (1980, with the U.S. Olympic hockey team) and Tony DiCicco (1999, with the U.S. Women’s soccer team).

In his story Wolff collected an array of perspectives from those whose lives have intersected with the coaches to weave a narrative that reveals several commonalities: Relationships, a willingness to evolve, deep parental influence and humanity. Wolff sums it up by concluding: “In the end it may simply come down to this: Pat Summitt is a woman secure enough to draw from her masculine side. Mike Krzyzewski is a man secure enough to draw from his feminine side. In their respective modulations, they’ve chosen not to overlook half of what it means to be human. And by doing so they double the chance that they’ll unlock what human beings are capable of.”

Wolff’s piece also includes a captivating tableau of anecdotes detailing factors that shaped Summitt’s and Krzyzewski’s legendary careers. For Summitt, much of her demeanor is traced back to her father, Richard Head, who raised Summitt with a tough-love approach on a farm in rural Tennessee. When Summitt was 10, her father “left her alone in a field with a tractor and a hay rake and orders to figure out how to use them.” For several years after taking over the Tennessee women’s program at the age of 21, Summitt ran her teams with a similar approach. But it wasn’t until she started channeling the gentler ways of her mother, Hazel, and made a genuine effort to understand her players’ emotions and vulnerabilities, that Summitt brought the Lady Vols-and women’s basketball as a whole-into the national spotlight.

Krzyzewski, meanwhile, has always believed in the power of imagery and metaphor in unlocking the full potential of his players. That approach has not only guided his Blue Devils to four national titles, it has also allowed the current cohort of American pros to reclaim ownership of their country’s national team program at a time when it was floundering. Krzyzewski says to Wolff: “I’ve always felt a kid needs to see things, not just hear them or read about them. People remember stories and examples better than words.”

The coaches will be honored in New York City on Tuesday evening, where they will be joined by fellow Sportswomen and Sportsmen Chris Evert (1976), Sugar Ray Leonard (1981), Wayne Gretzky (1982), David Robinson (2003) and David Ortiz (2004). The following is the complete list of Sportswomen and Sportsmen.

Source: http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205342417&DB_OEM_ID=4200

1stSgt Brant Young
USMC (Ret.)

Congrats on your all time wins record Coach K!

GO DUKE!

The man known simply as “Coach K” became Division I’s winningest coach when No. 6 Duke beat Michigan State 74-69 on Tuesday night in the State Farm Champions Classic.

The Blue Devils gave Krzyzewski his 903rd win, breaking the tie with Knight, Krzyzewski’s college coach at Army and his mentor throughout his professional career.

With Knight sitting across the court at the ESPN broadcast table, and with several former players in the stands – many able to attend because of the ongoing NBA lockout – Krzyzewski moved to the top of the list in front of a sellout crowd of 19,979 at Madison Square Garden.

Krzyzewski went right across the court to hug Knight when the game ended. Krzyzewski, tears in his eyes, broke away, and Knight pulled him back, hands on his shoulders, then there was one final slap of the shoulder.

“I just told Coach I love him,” Krzyzewski said. “I wouldn’t be in this position without him. It’s a moment shared. I know he’s very proud, and I’m very proud to have been somebody who’s worked under him and studied him and tried to be like him.

“I’m not sure how many people tell him they love him but I love him for what he’s done for me and I thanked him. He said ‘Boy, you’ve done pretty good for a kid who couldn’t shoot.’ I think that means he loves me too. At least that’s how I’m taking that.”

Junior guard Andre Dawkins had 26 points for Duke (3-0), which took control with a 20-1 run that gave the Blue Devils a 61-41 lead with 9:17 to play. Then it was just a matter of counting down the minutes – except for a late run by Michigan State that made it a five-point game in the final minute – until the celebration could get under way.

It wasn’t the Cameron Crazies cheering their coach on after a few nights waiting and sleeping in Krzyzewskiville. But a pro-Duke crowd started to get loud as the Blue Devils took control in the second half, as well as the fans from Michigan State, Kentucky and Kansas and a bunch of regular old New Yorkers including filmmaker and New York Knicks fan Spike Lee.

“The basketball gods are good … they put two guys who’ve done a lot in the game together, special moments, and tonight is another one of those special moments,” Krzyzewski said of Knight’s presence at the historic game.

The former players in attendance read like a Who’s Who of great college basketball players in the last three decades.

And they were all there for one reason.

“I can’t say I’m surprised because I saw firsthand the level of preparation, the level of passion he put into his program every single day,” said Shane Battier, who won a title with Krzyzewski. “I know if you gave him enough opportunity he’d give Bobby Knight a run for his money. It’s just amazing to be here on this night to see the culmination of this work.”

Like many others, Battier doesn’t think Krzyzewski will be done adding to the win total for several years.

“He’s ageless. He looks great. He looks the same as when I was a freshman,” Battier said. “There’s no reason to think he won’t be around for many years to come.”

Dawkins, who had six 3-pointers, and Ryan Kelly hit 3s to start Duke’s big run. As Michigan State (0-2) kept missing shots down low, Seth Curry hit another 3 for Duke and then the Blue Devils closed the run by making 6 of 6 attempts at the free throw line.

The Spartans kept Krzyzewski coaching to the final minute. They finally started hitting shots and forcing turnovers to close to 74-69 with 12.9 seconds left.

Curry had 20 points while Kelly added 14 for the Blue Devils, who were 10 of 21 from 3-point range.

“It’s a special moment,” Krzyzewski said of his family and former players being there. “At halftime I wasn’t sure we were going to have this moment. We beat a really good team, and I’m glad now we can just move on and just develop our team.”

Krzyzewski used the New York Yankees to explain how hard it is to keep a program on top because of players changing every four years, or even earlier with the NBA draft looming overhead.

“We don’t have Jeter or Rivera for 15 straight years and you have to do it in intense competition in a great school,” he said. “We never have problems because usually we can develop a team. They want to be one, and I don’t have to fight that which is great.”

Keith Appling had 22 points for Michigan State, and Brandon Wood added 15. The Spartans finished with 21 turnovers.

“I was in a no-win situation,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. “I was either going to be the guy who threw the ball to Henry Aaron for the record breaker of the guy who shot Bambi.”

Krzyzewski’s latest win had a very similar plot to the previous 902 as the Blue Devils were patient in a spread offense that got them open 3s and they moved the ball around against a tired bunch of Spartans and finally found a way to the free throw line.

The Blue Devils finished 30 of 41 from the line.

Krzyzewski moved to the top of the list in his 37th season, all but five at Duke. He also coached at West Point, his alma mater where Knight molded a point guard into a coach for the ages.

Knight won his 902 games in 42 seasons, six at Army, 29 at Indiana and seven at Texas Tech. Krzyzewski has four national championships while Knight has three.

Krzyzewski and Knight both led the United States to an Olympic gold medal, Knight in 1984 and Krzyzewski in 2008. Coach K will have a chance at a second gold when he leads the team of NBA players again in London next summer.

Another number they both had in common was high graduation rates throughout their careers.

Duke led 34-33 at the end of a sloppy first half. The Blue Devils were 6 of 11 from 3-point range while the Spartans were just 2 of 6. Michigan State was able to offset 11 turnovers by dominating inside, outscoring the Blue Devils 16-4 in the paint, including a 6-1 advantage in second-chance points.

Duke is 26-15 all-time, including a 21-7 mark under Krzyzewski, at Madison Square Garden and the Blue Devils have won 12 of their last 14 there. Under Krzyzewski, Duke is 453-71 in non-conference games.

“I know I’m a very good coach and I get really good guys and then it’s up to us to fight like hell to win,” Krzyzewski said.

Source: GoDuke.com