DURHAM, N.C. — As Nina King stood on the edge of Chase Center’s court in San Francisco on Saturday night, amid Duke’s celebrating players and families and her fellow administrators, one word entered her mind.
“Magical,” she said.
Since being named as Duke’s athletics director last May and taking over in August, King envisioned just this scenario. In coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final season before his planned retirement, he’d lead the Blue Devils to New Orleans for the Final Four and, hopefully, another national championship.
The path this team took to get there wasn’t always smooth, what with three ACC losses at Cameron Indoor Stadium including the 94-81 loss to rival North Carolina in the regular-season finale that Krzyzewksi himself called “unacceptable.”
A week later, the Blue Devils missed a chance to deliver Krzyzewski one last ACC tournament championship, losing 82-67 in the final to Virginia Tech.
Since then, the doubts that existed from college basketball observers right down to people involved with the program about this team’s staying power have evaporated.
After doing the expected by dismantling Cal State-Fullerton, 78-61, Duke ground out late-game wins over Michigan State, 85-76, and Texas Tech, 78-73, before pulling away in the second half to beat Arkansas, 78-69, on Saturday night to win the West Regional and reach the Final Four.
“It’s been an incredible season, just so much through the season,” King told The News & Observer. “The emotions of coach’s last everything. We saw the pressure on the student-athletes in the last game (at Cameron). But what a bounce back. The past two weeks have just been magical.”
For their 75-year-old coach, the Blue Devils have made his last run special already — winning the ACC regular-season championship and reaching the Final Four to add two more banners to Cameron’s rafters.
“You know, you can see the joy in the kids you have the honor to coach,” Krzyzewski said Monday during an appearance on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio. “This is our youngest team and there’s an exuberance and a feeling of accomplishment that they show. And for them to do that, like they’re growing up right before my eyes. What a joyful experience. I have that with my daughters, my 10 grandkids, and I’m having it right now with my team.”
Duke is playing in the Final Four for the 17th time, a record 13 having come with Krzyzewski as their coach. In five of those trips, the Blue Devils have claimed the NCAA championship.
To win a sixth championship, though, Duke will have to do something it’s never done before — play and beat rival UNC in the Final Four. Their first NCAA Tournament game will be Saturday night at the Superdome.
Krzyzewski knows the hype this game will receive all week. He’ll do his best to whittle it down to one game on the way to winning two more for an NCAA championship.
“Well, for us it couldn’t be bigger than being in the Final Four,” Krzyzewski said Monday. “How could it be bigger for the competitor? For the fan, I think it becomes bigger, because it’ll be talked about so much. But I mean, look, for these kids their dream is to play in a Final Four. So can’t get any bigger than that. But for the attention that it’ll get from everyone, you know, that makes it bigger for the people watching. It cannot get any bigger for me or for my team because it’s North Carolina. What if it was Kansas, would it not be huge?”
This storied season has landed Duke in one of the all-time great Final Four fields, where all four teams have at least three previous national championships. It’s the first time all four teams enter the Final Four with multiple titles.
UNC leads the way with six, giving Duke a chance to catch the Tar Heels one more time before Krzyzewski steps aside. Kansas and Villanova have three each.
“How about those four programs?” Krzyzewski said. “You look at the total number of wins for those programs and they’re four of the top winners. I know a lot of people just will be talking about Duke and North Carolina, but it’s four teams. I mean, Villanova and Kansas, I mean, two of the storied programs in the history of our game. It’s gonna be an amazing week.”
It’s the week everyone involved with Duke’s program has been planning to attend since last summer. Associate head coach Jon Scheyer was picked as Krzyzewski’s successor last June, allowing Krzyzewski to work with the current team while Scheyer and the staff hit the road recruiting during the summer.
Krzyzewski forged a championship team that included its usual dose of heavy contributions from freshmen, namely Paolo Banchero, A.J. Griffin and Trevor Keels this season. Scheyer landed the No. 1 recruiting class for 2022 and is challenging for the top class in 2023 as well.
Duke’s current players, many of whom will likely enter the NBA draft this summer, are playing their best basketball as a team with the most at stake.
“The intensity and passion, you can see it in their eyes,” King told the N&O. “It’s a whole new team. We knew this was possible. We were talking about the Final Four in New Orleans at the beginning of the season. So here we are.”
