CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Much as Mike Krzyzewski doesn’t want it referred to in this manner, the lasts are piling up as his time as Duke’s coach draws to a close.
Wednesday night marked the retiring Krzyzewski’s final road stop in a traditional ACC venue and his Blue Devils delivered a 65-61 win over Virginia at John Paul Jones Arena.
Coach K’s Blue Devils have battled Virginia annually during his 42 seasons at Duke. That made this stop different from upcoming games at Syracuse on Saturday and Pittsburgh on Tuesday.
While those are ACC games, they come against a pair of former Big East schools who have less than a decade of experience in the ACC.
Though Duke and Virginia are two of the ACC’s top basketball programs — they along with North Carolina have won NCAA championships as league members in the last seven years — their combative nature took a pause a few times Wednesday night.
It started just prior to the national anthem, when Virginia coach Tony Bennett grabbed a microphone to address the 75-year-old Krzyzewski and the sold-out crowd.
“Coach, I know you are not retired and hopefully you have a lot of games left in this college basketball season,” Bennett said. “But I want to take this opportunity because this is important to me and our team and the rest of us to acknowledge your monumental contributions to the basketball world and our game of college basketball." The Virginia crowd then interrupted Bennett’s speech with a warm ovation. Bennett continued, saying Coach K’s success “stood the test of time” and also praising Krzyzewski’s wife, Mickie, for her patience and support behind the scenes.
“It’s a partnership,” Bennett said. “Congratulations to you on this journey and I hope you guys have a blessed retirement.”
With that, the crowd cheered again. Bennett hugged Krzyzewski and presented him with a plaque to honor his career.
After the game, Krzyzewski admitted it was an emotional moment.
“It was really, really very, very good of Tony to do that,” Krzyzewski said. “Look, I’m not looking for a farewell tour or anything like that. But it is my last year and if there’s some way that we can celebrate the brotherhood that’s in the game, that’s a good thing.”
Krzyzewski celebrated that brotherhood another time during pregame. He spotted where retired Virginia coach Terry Holland sat to watch the game. Krzyzewski walked across the court to embrace the 79-year-old Holland, who coached Virginia from 1974-90.
Early in Krzyzewski’s Duke days, Holland’s Cavaliers were a nemesis. A 109-66 ACC tournament loss to Virginia concluded Krzyzewski’s third season amid pressure from Duke boosters to oust him.
But Wednesday night was nothing but love between the two, an extension of Bennett and Virginia’s honoring Krzyzewski’s Hall of Fame career.
Krzyzewski pointed out the contrast to other scenes in college basketball, referencing the recent postgame kerfuffle between Michigan and Wisconsin. Wolverines coach Juwan Howard drew a suspension from the incident after he hit a Wisconsin assistant coach in the head.
“We’ve got all this stuff going on, handshake lines and all that,” Krzyzewski said. “Tonight was beautiful. It showed the brotherhood in our league and the respect that programs have for one another and that coaches have for one another. It meant a great deal to me.”
Virginia joined a number of other ACC schools that honored Krzyzewski upon his final trip to their venues. Florida State, Clemson and Boston College all made announcements along with donations to Durham’s Emily Krzyzewski Center in honor of Krzyzewski’s career.
Louisville had a pregame ceremony with retired coach Denny Crum where Krzyzewski was presented a custom-made Louisville Slugger bat and a personalized bottle of Maker’s Mark bourbon.
Notre Dame played a video during halftime of Irish coach Mike Brey, a former Duke assistant, praising Krzyzewski for his career and the impact on his career.
For Bennett, having Virginia join that list was a must.
“When someone can last that long and do what he’s done and again,” Bennett said, “it was the right thing to do.”
Said Krzyzewski, “Tonight was to me, I get a little bit emotional about it, because that’s the college game and that’s the ACC I know. It’s beautiful. There’s not one program that wins all the time. But there are a lot of great programs, and they should be celebrated, and the people in them should be celebrated. Not just by their own fans, but the other programs.”
