If it wasn't for UConn breaking the hearts of Blue Devils everywhere in the 1999 NCAA title bout and then again in their 2004 Final Four clash, former Duke basketball head coach and Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski might have retired with seven rings.
So now in retirement, it's no wonder the five-time national champ holds the UConn basketball program in such high regard as the No. 4 seed Huskies prepare to take on the No. 5 seed San Diego State Aztecs for all the marbles at 9:20 p.m. ET Monday (CBS) in Houston.
"I hate when people say there are no bluebloods in the Final Four," the 76-year-old Krzyzewski said on The Colin Cowherd Podcast on Sunday. "You have to be kidding me."
There's no doubt Krzyzewski knows what the emergence into a bonafide blueblood looks like. He coached the Blue Devils for 42 years, following five seasons at his alma mater, Army, and became the college game's all-time wins leader.
Sure, he inherited a Duke basketball program that was only two years removed from playing in the national championship game (a loss to Kentucky). That said, his four-plus decades in Durham coincided with the Blue Devils becoming a regular on the grandest stage — seven Final Four trips in one nine-year span and 13 altogether.
And, of course, no sane person would deny that he cemented Duke's place among the sport's handful of already-established giants in Kansas, Kentucky, UNC, and UCLA.
With that in mind, Coach K's praise for former UConn head coach Jim Calhoun, who orchestrated the Huskies' first two of now-four national titles in 1999 and 2004, seems to come from a place of genuine respect. After all, Krzyzewski went as far as to imply Calhoun might have been a superior program builder to even himself.
"What Jim Calhoun built — one of the great coaches but also maybe the greatest builder of a program — since 1999, they've won four national championships (1999, 2004, 2011, 2014)," he pointed out in his chock-full-of-memories chat with Cowherd. "Maybe give them a different color. But certainly, they're at the level of all the few teams that you say are bluebloods."
Krzyzewski also brought up his friendship with fifth-year UConn head coach Dan Hurley, the younger brother of two-time Duke basketball national champ and eighth-year Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley.
"The Hurley family and our family, we're bonded together," he told Cowherd.
On that note, it seems safe to assume Coach K will be rooting for Dan Hurley to capture his first national championship (as a player or coach) and for the Huskies to match the Blue Devils' title count with a victory on Monday night.
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