Coach K Sets NCAA Record With Win Number 903

We all know the story: He’s Polish, Bobby Knight’s his mentor, he was made honorable by the military, he saved America by winning the Olympics, and he’s the last protector of basketball purity on the planet, etc, etc. And I can’t stand him.

If my name were Sam, then Coach K would be my green eggs and ham, only the book wouldn’t rhyme, because what rhymes with Kryzyzewski? Seriously, the fact that Coach K is atop the NCAA record books, with a win over Michigan State, makes me need to sit down, watch The Sound of Music, and have Julie Andrews harmonize the evil out of the world. But, tonight, tonight feels different.

It takes a long time to win 903 games. This season marks Coach K’s thirty-second straight at Duke, following a five-year stint at Army, and in a nuclear winter where basketball courts have been boarded up and quarantined, that kind of longevity and dedication to a game is refreshing, even for a North Carolina fan like myself.

Coach K is not a hero of mine–and if there’s a negative joke out there about him, then I’ve probably already laughed at it–but I do respect what he’s been able to build over the course of a career, that a Duke team always plays tough defense from end to end, that his players graduate, and that scandal has not been his bedfellow. And, in accordance with how the post started, I hope that’s always the case, because the last few weeks have left me jaded to new revelations about legends, their legacies, and the games that empower them.

Congratulations, Coach K, may there be no new chapters in your tenure at Duke.

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