Mike Krzyzewski frequently shows anger on a basketball court, but it’s limited to poor play from his Blue Devils or calls he feels the referees missed. This time his wrath found a new target in Duke’s 79-67 win Tuesday night over visiting Pitt.
At the halftime buzzer, the 40th-year Duke coach walked as briskly as a 72-year-old man with hip and knee replacements can move across the court. He blistered the Cameron Crazies student section for chanting at second-year Pitt coach Jeff Capel: “Jeff Capel, come sit with us.”
Capel is a former Duke player and assistant coach visiting Cameron for the first time, and Krzyzewski feared it was derisive.
The retired Army captain and West Point grad stopped just short of the out-of-bounds line to confront the students. His face was twisted red in anger as he pounded his chest with each shouted refrain:
“He’s one of us!”
“He’s one of us!”
“He’s one of us!”
The chant started with 38 seconds left in the first half as Pitt’s Xavier Johnson hit two free throws. Krzyzewski began yelling and gesticulating at the students from across the court, his anger even drifting him onto the court until one of the referees guided him back behind the line.
“I thought it was something personal,” Krzyzewski said after the game. “I apologized to the students. I don’t apologize for the timing of it. You shouldn’t say that in the first half of an ACC game. It was mistake on my part, but I’d rather make a mistake in protection of one of our guys. Let’s think of a different cheer.”
Coach K also apologized to Capel at the start of the second half.
“I didn’t know what they were saying,” Capel said. “I was locked into the competition. (Krzyezweksi) was trying to apologize to me, but I honestly didn’t know what happened.”
Krzyzewski never schedules games against his old players or assistant coaches because it is too hard on him emotionally. They only meet when necessary in conference games or tournaments.
As for the game, No. 9-ranked Duke improved to 17-3 overall and 7-2 in ACC play. Pitt, vastly improved from a year ago, is 13-8 and 4-6 in the ACC.
Duke has routed teams when hitting its three-point shots and struggling when the long-range attempts missed their mark. The hot or cold nights have usually lasted the duration, but this time Duke heated up in the final nine minutes of the first half for a decisive burst from a 16-15 deficit with 9:38 to play to a 45-34 halftime lead.
Duke had only hit one of its first seven three-point attempts until junior guard Jordan Goldwire buried one for an 18-15 lead with 9:15 remaining until intermission.
Goldwire hit another trey at 5:58 for a 27-21 lead and senior forward Jack White hit two in a row behind the arc for leads of 35-23 and 40-28. Goldwire’s third three-pointer was part of a 6-of-7 flourish to finish the first half 7-of-14.
“We sloughed off on (Goldwire), and he made us pay,” Capel said. “I thought that was the difference in the game. We wanted to clog the lane and make some other guys that hadn’t done it on a consistent level all year beat us. He stepped up.”
Goldwire finished with 13 points and three assists. The 6-foot-2, 185-pound junior has paired up with sophomore point guard Tre Jones to former a strong tandem. Jones had 14 points and eight assists.
“When we were in the line shaking hands (Capel) said, ‘Way to knock down shots,’ ” Goldwire said. “I was just trying to take what the defense was giving me and thankful they went down.”
White was 2-of-3 for six points and three rebounds.
“We don’t want to be a streaky team,” White said. “I don’t know if how they fell tonight means growth, but I think we’re getting better.”
Opponents are trying to take away 6-10, 270-pound Vernon Carey’s play inside while testing Duke’s perimeter game. But once the middle opened up, Carey finished with a double-double of 26 points and 13 rebounds.
Pitt’s Au-Diese Toney played what Capel said was his best game of the year, finishing with 27 points.
Coach K was willing to admit he misjudged the students’ chant, but White said the Cameron Crazies are lucky they don’t have to attend practice after angering Coach K.
“They’re very lucky,” said White said, “very lucky.”
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The evening began with a moment of silence for both Gene Corrigan and Kobe Bryant.
Corrigan, a former Duke athlete and ACC commissioner, died on Sunday at age 91.
Bryant, the basketball icon that won five NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers, was killed along with a daughter and seven others in a Sunday helicopter crash.
Both the Duke and Pitt players wore warm-ups with No. 8 on the front and No. 24 on the back. There was a moment of silence for 24.8 seconds to recognize his two numbers with the Lakers.
Krzyzewski commented that his player grew up first loving basketball when Bryant was one of the game’s giants. He gathered them in his office to talk about how to process the sudden death.
He also knew Bryant well from coaching him on two Olympic gold medal teams in 2008 and 2012 and one World Championship gold medal team in 2007.
“The last couple of days have been emotional,” Krzyzewski said. “Look, he was one of my players. I coached him on three teams. He was my leader. We had special moments, public and private. He was amazing with my grand kids.”
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I invite you to follow me on Twitter @shanny4055
Tom Shanahan, Author: Raye of Light http://tinyurl.com/knsqtqu
— Book on Michigan State’s leading role in the integration of college football. It explains Duffy Daugherty’s untold pioneering role and debunks myths that steered recognition away from him to Bear Bryant.
http://shanahan.report/a/the-case-for-duffy-and-medal-of-freedom
Don’t believe the myths at Duffy Daugherty’s expense about Bear Bryant’s motivation to play the 1970 USC-Alabama game or myths about the Charlie Thornhill-for-Joe Namath trade. Bear Bryant knew nothing about black talent in the South while he dragged his feet on segregation.
http://www.shanahan.report/a/forty-four-underground-railroad-legacy-facts
http://shanahan.report/a/myths-that-grew-out-of-1970-alabama-game-with-usc
http://shanahan.report/a/mystery-solved-in-thornhill-and-namath-myth
David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize winner and biographer; “History writes people out of the story. It’s our job to write them back in.”
https://www.augustpublications.com/
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