It even dates a game further than that – until December 2, 1998 at the United Center in Chicago. Neither coach remembers the Duke winning 73-67 – “A big part of coaching is not having a rear-view mirror,” Krzyzewski said – but it was the first of 15 meetings streaked over the years.
Two have appeared in the Final Fours (Duke won 1999 and 2015), one in an Elite Eight (an epic Michigan State victory in Washington 2019), two in Sweet 16s (a split in 2005 and 2013). The country has come up with celebrities when the Duke plays Michigan State, as if it makes regular sense, and lately they have been playing together every year, as if they were sharing a conference, so Izzo said here on Saturday: “Who the hell planned that?”
Duke has won 12 of the 15, if only one of the last three, so here they go again, one last time, second round, No. 7 Seed Michigan State (23-12) vs. No. 2 Seed Duke (29-6) ), all weird and all.
“Like I said,” Izzo said here on Saturday, “there are weird emotions on both sides of the scorer’s table. I can not even imagine what it was like for Mike. I saw Mickie [Krzyzewski’s wife] the other day, yesterday, the day before here, and I can not imagine, if you have done something in the same place for so long, the emotions of it. “
He can imagine 27 seasons in one place, just not 42.
He recalled the 2001 South Region Finals, when the Michigan State Temple outwrestled 69-62, and Izzo was thrilled about a third straight Final Four (with a title in 2000), but he did also felt weird shaking hands with the great John Chaney who would not get to one. Now Izzo was at eight, Krzyzewski at 12.
Izzo’s players know for sure that they can end Krzyzewski’s career right here, and they learned on Friday night in front of their Barnburner with Davidson that they’ll be offered, even if Friday night Buen had been a Davidson-Duke Boo choir, an inspiring tour. of cooperative bushes. The Michigan State Ethos can blur the buzz, like when senior forward Gabe Brown said, “I love it. I love being underdogs. I love when people buoy us and they do not believe in us because that is when we are at our best.
The Duke players know for sure that they too could lead Krzyzewski’s career to an end here, with 1,199 career victories, even as junior forward Wendell Moore Jr. recalled: “For us it was like this all year round. Every game we play was the coach’s last thing, so we were able to adapt to it. We see it as a kind of motivation for us, because we say “We always want to go out and do it for the coach, send him a high note. But at the same time, this is our season.”
Michigan State, which defeated Davidson and a hostile crowd, 74-73, on Friday night, is running around with a 23-6 record under Izzo in the second game of Quick-Turnround Weekends. Stat Geeks mix that peerless. But Duke is running around with a long-term championship of Michigan State and these Krzyzewski-Izzo farmers of mutual respect and friendship, an idea perhaps curious but not for Krzyzewski.
“Probably we have Grant Hill or [J.J.] Redick, “said Krzyzewski (even though Hill finished at the Duke just before Izzo started at Michigan State).” I do not think there is a secret sauce. I’m not that big on coach-versus-coach records. Maybe in the NFL, where you have the same players [perennially]. But that was never a state that interested me.
He concluded his response to Mike DeCourcy of Sporting News, one of the esteemed deans of college basketball writing, with: “That’s okay if it interests you.”
He later said: “I just never did – you do not put a banner on your record against a certain team or a particular coach. So if you are caught in that or your record on a Saturday afternoon or whatever, it’s just that. wrong – for me it was the wrong thing to do. I’m not saying it’s wrong for everyone. I know the only banners that are on Duke are championship banners, and that means you have to beat a number of people.
You have to beat six – not even five will do it, because four Krzyzewski teams learned as national runners (1986, 1990, 1994, 1999).
“Mike has a much better TV [presence]said Izzo. “Like, I always thought Mike was really quiet. He had the Duke button-up. You know, I did not know for what bank he worked, but I knew it was a bank. Then I played him for the first time, and I looked down there, and I said, “Wow, sometimes he talks like a yooper.” I mean, I learned that about him, but I also appreciate that about him. I think he really is. “
He added: “I think what I learned most from him happened really early in my career at the Final Four in Florida, Tampa. I heard him win over the weekend, and that was definitely stolen.
And when asked about the differences between them, Izzo did not really go into detail to identify them, even though they had to number at least some with two coaches. It’s just a little weird around here, and so Izzo said, “Even though we are different, I do not think so much. I think he trains in warm weather. I train in the snow.
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