Former Duke men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski experienced his fair share of devastating losses over his lengthy career. That will happen when you spend 42 seasons at a single school.
But despite Krzyzewski being out of the coaching game for years now, it’s still possible for him to be affected by a Duke loss. He found that out Sunday, when UConn’s Braylon Mullins hit a last-second shot with just 0.3 seconds left to eliminate Duke from the NCAA tournament.
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Krzyzewski revealed his reaction to that shot — and everything that preceded it — during an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday. He may no longer coach Duke, but Krzyzewski found the loss “heartbreaking,” he said during the appearance.
“It was heartbreaking, I’m telling you. I haven’t coached for four years now, but, again, it was a great, great basketball game. Not a good one. It was a great game. And I could not fall asleep last night. I felt like I was part of that. And then you’re thinking about all these individual kids and how you’re going to take care of them. And [I have] just such great empathy for our guys. Obviously, I’m a Duke guy and have concern for them. And still do. Because that’s a tough one to get over.”
During the segment, which lasted 20 minutes, Krzyzewski spoke about Cayden Boozer’s turnover, saying the game did not come down to that one play. Krzyzewski credited Boozer for being willing to speak with the media after the game, and said it would be on current Duke head coach Jon Scheyer to support the players and make sure they all know “no one individual player bears the burden of that alone.”
Krzyzewski didn’t do a ton of losing at Duke, putting up a .785 winning percentage at the school. Due to his longevity, though, he lost 309 games, and some of those were likely equally as heartbreaking for the former head coach.
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One of those losses likely came vs. UConn, which defeated Duke in the 1999 NCAA tournament championship. Duke rebounded two years later by winning the national championship, proof that no one loss — no matter how devastating — is bad enough to completely sink a program.
