Krzyzewski

The happiest man at the Final Four in Seattle, next to Jim Harrick and Nolan Richardson, of course, is Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who is out among the college basketball public for the first time in months, moonlighting as a CBS analyst."

For the first time in more than two decades, the Atlantic Coast Conference's annual men's basketball media day was held without Gary Williams there to represent the University of Maryland. Williams retired in May, and at Wednesday's media day, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski talked about the void left at Maryland and in the ACC. “The Duke-Maryland games were huge games for our conference,” Krzyzewski said. “And we lost an incredible personality and somebody that helped not just brand the Maryland program, but helped brand ACC basketball.” Williams led Maryland, his alma mater, to a national championship, two Final Fours and a 461-252 record.

The relationship goes back more than 25 years, when Mike Krzyzewski left the West Side of Chicago to play for Bob Knight at Army. It has grown, as the player became a coach and is now considered to be among the best -- if not the best -- in his business. This week, there will as much focus on Krzyzewski and Knight as there will be on their respective basketball teams, Duke and Indiana, going into Saturday's NCAA semifinals at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.It is a study in contrasting personalities: Krzyzewski, intense but seemingly always in control, a players' coach to the core.

INDIANAPOLIS - Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski had just helped snip down an NCAA tournament championship net Monday night and he predicted who would be favored to stand in that spot next season. He didn't name Duke. He picked the team Duke had just beaten. "Somebody's going to pick the top 10 for next year; where are you going to pick Butler?" he said after winning his fourth national title with a 61-59 victory at Lucas Oil Stadium. "They'll be a favorite next year." Krzyzewski could be right - as long as a few things at Butler stay the same.

In a move that could send shock waves across the San Andreas fault of college and professional basketball, the Los Angeles Lakers are talking with Duke's Mike Krzyzewski about their vacant coaching position. Krzyzewski, a Hall of Fame coach who has won three national titles and been to 10 Final Fours in 24 seasons at Duke, spoke privately with Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak, most recently yesterday in North Carolina. The talks were characterized by Duke athletic director Joe Alleva as "serious discussions," and ESPN reported last night that the Lakers had formally offered Krzyzewski the job. "Obviously, when you have the best coach in the country, it's not unusual when one of the best franchises in the country comes at him," Alleva said yesterday.

The coach almost did not hear the whistle because it was blown far from a basketball court by someone who had never called a foul on him before: his wife. It was January 1995 and Mickie Krzyzewski felt like a failure. Her husband, Mike, was a superstar basketball coach and she was afraid it was killing him.He had led teams from Duke to seven Final Four appearances and to consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association championships in 1991 and 1992 and became a poster boy for running a program with academic and athletic integrity.

Mike Krzyzewski isn't going Hollywood after all. Rejecting a reported five-year, $40 million offer from the Los Angeles Lakers, Krzyzewski announced during a nationally televised news conference in Durham, N.C., yesterday that he will remain at Duke and likely finish out his legendary career among the crazies at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Instead of trying to replace Phil Jackson and continue a Lakers legacy that includes 14 NBA titles, Krzyzewski will try to build on his own 24-year legacy at Duke that includes a 621-181 record, 10 Final Four appearances, three NCAA championships and a basketball court named in his honor.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Here we go again.It's bitter rivals Duke and North Carolina meeting for the fourth time in the 1990s in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship game today.Duke not only trails the storied Tar Heels 6-2 overall in ACC tourney title games, but the streaking Blue Devils will have to do battle this time without their celebrated senior Trajan Langdon, who will miss a second straight game with a strained left foot.Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski made sure his top-ranked and top-seeded team would be in the title game by apparently using one of the oldest psychological ploys in the coaching profession yesterday.

When Duke faces Indiana's 6-foot-10 prodigy, Jared Jeffries, in tonight's South Regional semifinal at Kentucky's Rupp Arena, Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski will wonder what might have been. Two years ago, Krzyzewski recruited Jeffries in his hometown of Bloomington, Ind., right under the noses of the Hoosiers - and nearly got him. Jeffries visited Durham, N.C., and appeared close to going there before experiencing a change of heart. Can the coach imagine this Duke team with Jeffries' 15.3 points and 7.4 rebounds a game?

They have dominated the competition for most of the season, played a private game of four-way leapfrog at the top of the national rankings and were seemingly assured of No. 1 seeds in this year's NCAA tournament for at least the past month.But will they become the first group of top seeds to make it to the Final Four?North Carolina coach Bill Guthridge seems doubtful."Initially I thought there were 30 teams that could compete for the national championship, now I feel it's down to 10 or 12," Guthridge, sounding much like his legendary predecessor, said yesterday.

- So many of the architects of the long-standing Maryland-Duke rivalry were in attendance Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium. There was former Terrapins coach Lefty Driesell and former Duke player J.J. Redick, a Maryland nemesis. There was current Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who was celebrating his 1,000th game at Duke and his 63rd birthday. And there was Maryland coach Gary Williams, whose Terrapins were unable to use Saturday's game to revive the rivalry, which has turned one-sided the past few seasons.

The winningest matchup of Division I coaches was definitely one-sided. Seventh-ranked Duke and Mike Krzyzewski won another NIT Season Tip-Off on Friday in New York with a 68-59 victory over No. 13 Connecticut and Jim Calhoun . The Hall of Fame coaches set the record for total career wins in a game, and Krzyzewski now has 839, fourth on the all-time list. Calhoun has 809, good for sixth place. The Blue Devils dominated the Huskies in every category in extending their winning streak in the tournament to 12 games with their third straight title (2000, 2005)

The last two months of the Maryland men's basketball season were highlighted by the Terps' 180-degree turn toward an eventual NCAA tournament berth - and dragged down by the nasty feuding between the factions that wanted Gary Williams to stay and the ones that wanted him to go. As it turns out, the events of last week have further vindicated at least a few of the pro-Gary arguments. Mainly, those that compared what has happened lately in College Park to what has gone on in other programs, shining a better light on what Williams has done.

BEIJING - When it was all over and the Americans were draped in red, white, blue and gold, Carmelo Anthony spoke of his team and his country and the state of USA Basketball. But he just as easily could have been referring to himself. "We were at America's lowest point in '04," said Anthony, who, in case you forget, returned to Baltimore shortly after the Athens Games and infamously declared in a street video that he tossed his Olympic bronze medal into a lake. "And to be sitting in front you guys tonight and be on top of the world," he continued, "I think we did a hell of a job putting America basketball back where it's supposed to be."

WASHINGTON -- Belmont came within 11.9 seconds of not only joining the fraternity of NCAA tournament history-makers, but of surpassing them all. Duke, seeded second in the West Regional and ranked ninth in the nation, was saved from one of the biggest upsets in the history of the tournament last night by a steal by Gerald Henderson, who used a coast-to-coast drive for the go-ahead points, then by DeMarcus Nelson's interception of an errant inbounds pass....

Bob Knight, who became the winningest coach in Division I men's college basketball long after he became one of college sports' most controversial figures, resigned suddenly yesterday, effectively ending one of the game's most decorated and discussed careers. In a move that Knight hinted was done to pave the way for his son and assistant coach, Pat, to follow him as coach at Texas Tech, Knight informed officials at the Big 12 school that he was leaving with 10 games left on the schedule.

DURHAM, N.C. - As the image of each coach flashed on the huge screen high above the Georgia Dome during this year's Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, there was a smattering of applause as a short public service announcement was made. When Mike Krzyzewski's face appeared and the Duke coach started speaking, the crowd seemed to pay more attention. His words were drowned out by a chorus of boos. Such is the price of fame these days. The Blue Devils have been college basketball's most successful program over the last 15 years and the 54-year-old Krzyzewski has been its transcendent figure.

Good morning --Mike Krzyzewski -- Congratulations on the Olympic job - finally you'll have some players who turn out to be good pros.

Is it coincidence, evidence of how hard it is to remain at the top or a bad omen for Mike Krzyzewski? Bob Knight needs one more victory to draw even with Dean Smith and his record 879. The winningest coaches in the history of men's college basketball had 11 seasons between their first and last NCAA titles. So did John Wooden, whose UCLA dynasty crammed 10 titles into an 11-season window. Adolph Rupp at Kentucky? Ten seasons between his first NCAA championship in 1948, and his fourth in '58. Ditto for Krzyzewski, who got Duke championships in 1991, 1992 and 2001 but hasn't won a game at the Final Four since.