Duke Head Coach addresses recent rumors about NJ Nets interest
Recent reports in New Jersey suggested that Coach K is the Nets’ top priority to be their new head coach and possibly general manager. Seems like a good move by the Nets as they look to make a splash under the incoming ownership of Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov. There’s no question if the Blue Planet staff also ran an NBA team or a basketball team of any kind, we would want Coach K running the show too.
After our win over Maryland, a reporter asked Coach K about the recent rumors. The Duke Head Coach responded, “The guy is Russian. You think he’d hire a Polish guy? No one has contacted me. If they do, saying ‘Nyet’ would be easy to say.”
Coach K added Monday on ESPN Radio when asked about it again, “I have a lot of respect for the Nets. I think it is a good job. And the Nets haven’t offered that… But I am close friends with (Nets President) Rod Thorn and that is a great job for a coach to come in and build something.”
When pressed about it and asked if anything could change his mind (i.e. $20 million and/or Jerry Colangelo joining the Nets), Coach K stated, “I really love what I do. I don’t know what price you would pay for that but I’ve been lucky. I said after the game Saturday — It was neat with the crowd and my family — It has been a privilege and an honor to coach at Duke for 30 years. I could not have dreamed of a better situation for me. I’ve led a really great life with my family and team here. I don’t know why you would want to change that. I make enough money. I want to be happy doing what I love to do, instead of doing what I am paid to do. I am paid right now to do what I love to do and what a cool thing that is.”
The response was not a surprise to the Duke faithful as Coach K has previously turned down the Lakers (including Kobe, the Laker tradition, big money and palm trees) as well as the Celtics and Trailblazers among other job offers. With a lifetime contract and 1,000 games under his belt, the 30-year Duke coach has stated on multiple occasions that he intends to finish his coaching career in Durham (hopefully after another 1,000 games!).
The Blue Devils came out of the gates quickly and scored 15 straight points during an early 25-6 run. Maryland closed within 10 points midway through the second half, but Duke pulled away from there.
Blue Devil Ballers
Brian Zoubek had a career game with 16 points, 17 boards, and a pair of blocks. Jon Scheyer was also outstanding, netting 22 points (6-12 FG, 3-4 3pt) with only one turnover.
Duke Data
1000 — Number of games Coach K has coached at Duke (781-219 record all-time)
8-2 — Duke’s record in the past 10 games against Maryland, including six straight wins
56 — Points scored by Maryland, marking the 12th time this season in which Duke has limited its opponent to less than 60 points (sixth time in 11 ACC games)
20 — Offensive rebounds by Duke in the game (the Blue Devils had 20 second-chance points)
29.7% — Percentage of Coach K’s 1,000 games that have resulted in a Duke win by 20+ points, including the victory over Maryland
Coach K’s Comments
“Well it was a big-time win for our team. I love Gary [Williams] and what he has done with his program… They are the most experienced of all the ACC teams. They have six guys on their team that at one time or another started last year. And they play like it…they play like it. I thought our defense was outstanding today and Brian was spectacular. He had 16 points, 17 rebounds…cleaned up a lot, eight offensive boards. And they were such uplifting buckets. He was even playing above the rim. No, he was above the rim a couple times. Anyways, I am going to try to figure out what he did last night, what he had for training meal. He is having them all the time now. When a player, especially a senior…our senior class is just rock-solid guys. They are just sensational guys and such team players and Brian has been such a good teammate and a good player. He has played really well all year. Today, that was a great basketball game. He played a great game and he was kind of the difference there because we weren’t hitting as well in other areas. Jon especially towards the end, was really spectacular himself. It was tough to score because they are a real good defensive team and Brian’s buckets gave us such a lift. Anyways, really happy, obviously it’s a honor to have coached 1,000 games here and what I said afterwards, it’s been a real privilege and honor for me to represent this great university. I could not have had a better place to coach, that was more of who I want to be, I’m not saying I’m like Duke, but I want to be like Duke. So, it’s been really good. It was a nice thing today.”
Locker Room Reaction
Nolan on the dunk by Zoubs off a missed Duke shot: “His dunk shocked the world. ESPN needs to make that a top 10 play right now. He may not have been high, he may not have been like LeBron, but whatever LeBron does in his next game or in whatever they have, Zoubs got the number one play in my book.”
Zoubs said about the game and his outstanding performance: “It feels really good to get this win with everything we had going on. Taking first place in the league, Coach’s birthday, his 1,000th game, you can pick any number of 100 reasons why we wanted to win this game. Coach works so hard for us. He’s in here every single night watching hundreds of hours of tape. It’s just ridiculous – I couldn’t do it. He works so hard for us, and we love to give him a gift like that back. It feels really good.”
Lastly, a birthday and 1,0000-game game tribute to Coach K from our players:
Sixth Man
Our Sixth Man weathered another snowfall and freezing temperatures last night, building an impressive snowman and waiting outside to be front and center for today’s game. Afterwards, ESPN’s Dick Vitale recognized the Crazie dedication when he tweeted, “Duke moved to the top of the ACC by beating the Terps-at Cameron Duke is a dominant team n lots of credit goes to Crazies!”
Zoubek soars — Senior center shines in his first start of season
Notes
*Over 100 former players, managers and staff members (including all-time leading scorer JJ Redick) returned to recognize 30 years of Coach K, Coach K’s 1,000 game and 70 years of Cameron. The attendees represented every decade of basketball that has been played in Cameron, going all the way back to the 1940′s.
*Special Nike tee-shirts were distributed to the undergraduate Crazies in attendance recognizing Coach K’s 1,000th game at Duke.
*Next up: Duke travels to Florida to take on Miami next Wednesday night (7:00 PM, ESPN) in an ACC clash.
Facts/Figures celebrating the 1000th game of Coach K
Saturday’s game marked the 1,000th that Coach K has coached at Duke during his storied career, and the Blue Devil legend became just the eighth coach in history to reach the 1,000-game milestone at one school. The Hall of Famer has taken his Blue Devils to amazing heights, and here’s a look inside some of the incredible facts and figures from game one through 1K.
86.5% — Percentage of Coach K’s games that Duke has been in the Top 25 (853)
78.1% — Coach K’s career winning percentage at Duke (781-219 record)
73.8% — Percentage of Coach K’s games that Duke has been in the Top 10 (738)
51.8% — Percentage of Coach K’s games resulting in double-digit wins for Duke
50% — Percentage of Coach K’s games that have come against an ACC opponent… Coach K is 351-150 in ACC regular-season and ACC Tourney play.
45% — Percentage of Coach K’s games that have been played in Cameron… With 393 wins, Coach K ranks second all-time in wins in one venue.
45.3% — Percentage of games under Coach K in which Duke has shot 50% or better from the floor (Duke is 423-30 in those games)
31.2% — Percentage of games under Coach K in which Duke has limited its opponent to less than 40% from the floor (Duke is 303-9 in those games)
29.7% — Percentage of Coach K’s games at Duke in which the Blue Devils have won by 20+ points
19% — Percentage of Coach K’s games that Duke has been ranked No. 1 (190)… Coach K has led Duke in more games ranked No. 1 than unranked (144 games)!
17% — Percentage of Coach K’s games that have been victories against ranked opponents (171 wins against Top 25 teams)
15.7% — Percentage of Coach K’s games at Duke in which the Blue Devils have won by 30+ points
10.6% — Percentage of Coach K’s games in which Duke has scored 100 points or more (Duke is 104-2 in those games)
9.3% — Percent of Coach K’s games that have come in the NCAA Tournament (71-22 record in the Big Dance makes Coach K the NCAA Tourney’s all-time winningest coach)
6.3% — Percentage of Coach K’s games that have been ACC Tournament contests, including 46 wins, 11 ACC Tourney titles and 15 ACC Championship game appearances
3.3% — Percentage of Coach K’s games that have been conference (11-4), regional (10-1) or national championship games (3-4)… Duke has won 24 of those title games!
51 – Number of banners sent to the rafters during Coach K’s career (3 NCAA titles, 10 Final Fours, 11 ACC Tournament titles, 11 ACC regular-season championships, 9 retired jerseys, 7 final No. 1 rankings)
“I feel honored. I feel really honored to be at Duke for 30 years. I came here right away and knew this was a place that would touch me for the rest of my life. I didn’t realize I’d have the good fortune to be here for 30 years coaching the Blue Devils.” Coach K
Contest results and Coach K reveals grand-prize winner
Thanks again to everyone who entered our Ultimate Crazies Contest contest… We appreciate the time and effort that was invested and definitely enjoyed checking out all the essays, photos, videos and even some songs! If you thought winning on the road was tough, try judging this contest! It took us awhile, but finally here are the results with the prize won in parenthesis.
Winner (2 tickets to UNC game, behind-the-scenes tour)…
Runner-Up (2 tickets to future ACC game & behind-the-scenes tour): John Tazbir
Final Four (Wins signed team poster and one year BP magazine subscription):Dan Creeden, Angela Leeder, Jackson Markham, Kellner Pruett
Sweet 16 (Wins Nike Duke tee-shirt):Sean Ireton, Melanie Dutton, Kevin Higley, Lindsey Barnes, Ryan Newcomb, Katherine Allison, Crystal Tao, Elissa Marks, Matthew Childers, Steve Holtz, Andy Gambill, Brittany Cook, Hannah Ellison, Jennie Chan, Holly Ricketts
NOTE TO THE WINNERS: We will get in touch with you via email in the next seven days to get the appropriate information needed for prize distribution…
At charity auctions, two tickets have been sold for as much as $40,000.
It’s the first-ever DBP Ultimate Crazie Contest, and we offered up two tickets for this year’s Duke/UNC game to the passionate and dedicated Duke fan we can find.
Before we officially opened the contest, we invited fans to help us decide how the contest should go down via our polls on DukeBluePlanet.com. Fans decided on an essay/photo/media contest, with a behind-the-scenes tour also given to the winner. The contest was open to everyone (by everyone we mean Duke fans all over the USA and the world – Tar Heel fans could not apply).
Instructions to enter the contest were as follows:
1. Express what Duke/Duke Basketball means to you using words/photos/media (Be creative!).
2. Email your name/contest entry to Dave Bradley at db@dukeblueplanet.com by January 27th
3. Check back about February 11th as we announce the winner on DukeBluePlanet.com and our Twitter page
If you are a diehard Duke fan who has dreamed of witnessing Duke battle UNC in Cameron… This one was for you!
At stake… Tickets to observe first-hand the most fun and intense game in all of sports… Plus a few other perks and prizes.
