With Duke’s crushing 87-62 victory over upstart Rhode Island in the second-round of the NCAA tournament on Saturday, coach Mike Krzyzewski made history — by recording his 1,099th career victory to surpass legendary Tennessee coach Pat Summitt for the most Division I basketball wins, men’s or women’s.
“It’s an honor,” Krzyzewski said on CBS after the win. “It means I had a lot of good players. And I’m at a good school.”
Krzyzewski, a five-time national champion, already held the men’s basketball record for most D-1 wins. The late Summitt coached Tennessee until the end of 2011-12 before early onset dementia led to her retirement, and she died from the disease in 2016.
“She would have won hundreds of more games. Pat could have coached men,” Krzyzewski told reporters of Summitt at a news conference on Friday. “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.”
On Saturday, the second-seeded Blue Devils (28-7) put the dark horse Rams (26-8), the Midwest’s No. 7 seed, away early to make their Sweet 16 ticket feel inevitable well before the final buzzer. Freshman star Marvin Bagley led Duke with22 points and nine rebounds, but it was the team’s guards and perimeter shooting — nearly 60% shooting and 50% from three — that put the game out of reach.
Outside of veteran guard E.C. Matthews (23 points on four three-pointers), Rhode Island couldn’t find much offensive rhythm all night and coach Dan Hurley’s team bowed out of the NCAAs where it did last year — in the round of 32. The Rams won an overtime thriller over Oklahoma on Thursday in the first round.
