Mike Krzyzewski can set the all-time wins record tonight against Michigan State at Madison Square Garden. Had some of his wins not been credited to someone else, he would have already passed Bob Knight.
Coach K officially has 902 wins, tied with his mentor Knight for the most among Division I basketball coaches. That total includes just nine victories from the 1994-95 season, Krzyzewski’s 15th at Duke. Krzyzewski left the team after its 9-3 start due to exhaustion following back surgery, and assistant coach Pete Gaudet took over as interim coach. Duke went 4-15 the rest of the way to finish with a 13-18 record.
Krzyzewski’s career record reflects the 9-3 start, but not the 4-15 finish during his absence. I’m not sure how I feel about these games not appearing on Coach K’s official record. Other coaches have missed games (Jim Calhoun comes to mind) and those results still appeared on their individual records, but those were just a few games. This was the majority of a season. I understand arguments for both sides.
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| Coach K (right) is tied with his mentor Bob Knight (left) for career wins. (Credit: John Pellino/DOIM) |
What’s interesting is that the NCAA chooses to leave decisions like this to the school, so it was Duke and Krzyzewski that decided how to record the 1994-95 season. However, on a conference call with reporters in 2007, Krzyzewski said, “I think I should have been credited with all the losses…The bottom line is I’m responsible even though I wasn’t there. I wouldn’t want the wins but you could give me the losses.”
That doesn’t make much sense to me. Either all of the final 19 games should be attributed to Krzyzewski or none of them, but not just the losses. Regardless, if Coach K truly felt this way, his career record would be 902-299, not 902-284, as I’m certain the school would change the record books upon his request.
Again, I’ll leave the debate over how that asterisked season should be handled to others. I am only certain of this: Had the entire season been credited to Krzyzewski, the record-setting victory would have come against Hampton in the first round of last year’s NCAA Tournament. But that’s not nearly as fun as it potentially coming in The World’s Most Famous Arena against an elite program with its own outstanding coach.
The Sportswriting of Andrew Kahn 
"What’s interesting is that the NCAA chooses to leave decisions like this (won/loss records) to the school." Not quite. The NCAA was ready to sanction Kentucky earlier this year when the Wildcats celebrated John Calipari's 400th (or some other milestone) win, claiming that a certain number of Calipari's wins had been vacated, and that Kentucky could not recognize those wins. Another reason why many people think the NCAA is a bunch of bumbling bureaucrats
Good point. I was too general in my statement. The NCAA will get involved when they believe there is rule-breaking, but not when a head coach misses games for personal reasons. Even that is hard to believe since the NCAA tends to involve itself in most everything else.