Frank Jackson to Duke

[Rocktheworld]

I’m guessing very few of you saw this—not being Mets, Phillies or WBB fans—but Geno threw out the first pitch (strike!) at Citi Field last night and they interviewed him during the game. He had some interesting thoughts on the difference between sports like basketball and football, where players are frequently judged historically on the number of championships they’ve won, versus baseball, which has become mostly an individual sport where players are frequently judged on individual stats like HRs, hits, wins, saves, etc.

He very skillfully transitioned from that to a discussion of playing at a place like Connecticut, where championships are the expectation because of our history of basketball excellence. And then he wove the championship tradition of UConn basketball into UConn baseball, pointing out the UConn players in the Mets farm system, and concluding that college athletes in all sports now come to UConn with the expectation that winning championships is not only possible, but that it is the goal.

All of which is to say that, I think most here would agree that the best gauge of the quality of a D1 basketball program is whether, and how frequently/consistently, that team is in position to compete for championships. On that scale, I don’t think there is anyone in the post-Wooden era who comes close to K. I’ll take JC head-to-head in any game, and he is certainly in the discussion for next best after K, but there is simply no denying K’s standing and success.

I saw the game and heard it live. Damn Geno is -cking man.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

Please, if you can't respect Mike Krzyzewski as one of the greatest coaches of all time, you seriously need to check yourself.
Cal on the other hand can suck an octopus tentacle.

 

[8893]

tl;dr stopped at " geno"

You can get help with that you know.

I've probably mentioned this before, but being of half Irish and half Italian descent I feel a bit kindred with both JC and Geno. On the rare occasions that I watch the women, I am often more entertained by him than by the game itself.

I won't compare the sports, but Geno has no peer in his.

I pray for the day when he blows minds by coaching a men's team. Not ours, but maybe a Philly area school like St. Joe's or Temple. I want to see that happen.

 

[Fishy]

I pray for the day when he blows minds by coaching a men's team. Not ours, but maybe a Philly area school like St. Joe's or Temple. I want to see that happen.

F--- that.

I want him to keel over on the UConn bench at the very end of the last game of his last season

 

[8893]

F--- that.

I want him to keel over on the UConn bench at the very end of the last game of his last season

Exhibit A for my prayers.

 

[jleves]

First, I continue to be amazed that some hayseeds cannot handle any topic without needing to fall back to what appears to be their sole frame of reference - UConn. Whether K is a great coach or not is completely independent of anything that's happened at UConn.

Second, if you think 1,018 games "aren't nearly as compelling", you're a freaking moron.

Just to pile on a bit, the idea that 1000+ and counting victories isn't compelling, only 7 D1 men's coaches have reached 800 wins. 5 of them are retired, and only one (Knight) has over 900 (902). The only currently active coaches in sniffing distance are Huggins @762 and there's a 50/50 chance he explodes human matter all over the court before he gets to 800 and Roy Williams @750. I imagine Pitino will get there - he's at 718.

1000 wins at the D1 level is remarkable and when you look at the company, it's obvious he's a great coach:

Kryzkewski.....1018
Knight.............902
Smith..............879
Rupp...............876
Calhoun..........873
Boeheim.........858 (108 wins vacated!!! Considering Calipari has 42 wins vacated, that's a remarkable accomplishment)
Sutton.............806

Huggins..........762
Williams.........750
Pitiono...........718

The fact that I can refer to them by only their last name indicates how great they are and they are all in the hall of fame except for Sutton (how that has gone undone is another mystery - guess it helps to win a NC) and Huggins. Amazingly (well maybe not, there are lots of year at Northeastern), Calhoun has the worst winning percentage (.697) of that entire group above. Knight is second worse (.709). K is 3rd at .767 behind Rupp (.822) and Smith (.776).

You don't get to the top of that list without being a great coach.

 

[Fishy]

Calhoun's first six or seven years at Northeastern were probably around .500 - it wasn't until the last half of his career there that he had them rolling to 20+ win seasons.

His winning percentage at UConn is in the .720 range.

 

[selles]

Yeah, but they weren't within shouting distance of UNC or NC State, were pretty clearly behind Virginia and arguably Maryland and/or Georgia Tech at that point as well.

Duke was a good program having a lull when K took over. But they weren't a top-20 program all-time.

Again, not to belabor the point (too late) but most of this is demonstrably wrong. Duke was NOT having a lull when K took over, they'd been #1 in the polls for portions of each of the two preceding years, and the year before that they'd been to the NCAA Finals. The lull came after K took over.

UVA was an utterly garbage program until Terry Holland took over; they didn't even make the tournament until 1976 and they had losing records most of the time before that. Georgia Tech didn't even join the ACC until 1980, they stun that year and they were a very mediocre Independent before that.

The historical program ranking in the ACC circa 1980 was (1) UNC (2) Duke and NC State arguing it out, with Maryland throwing in some comments based on a few good years from Lefty (3) everyone else. I'm too lazy to look back on other national programs, but I'd be surprised if Duke wouldn't have been considered at least a fringe top-20 program all-time when K took over in 1981.

Now kindly let me stop talking up Duke!

 

[Sky ball]

When did this become a Duke board?

20 min ago