Mike Krzyzewski humbled by the honors, former Duke players returning on Saturday

On Saturday night, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski was honored before, after, and during his final game coaching inside Cameron Indoor Stadium. Unfortunately for Duke, UNC spoiled the festivities, as the Tar Heels escaped with a victory to end the regular season. Regardless, Saturday was a special scene in Durham, and Krzyzewski was very appreciative for all of the love he has received.

After the game, Krzyzewski opened up about seeing his former players return to help honor him.

“As far as afterwards in seeing so many of my former players, it’s beautiful,” Krzyzewski said after the game. “The honors from alumni, from our athletic department – I had forgotten what my high school number was it’s been so long. ‘Who’s 44,” I said. They said, ‘That was you.’ That was good. Obviously the best thing is to have those scholarships in our family’s name and for me to have my whole family here from my 10 grandkids to witness the love that this community has given me and my family. It’s so good.”

Now, with Duke’s still season still alive and the Blue Devils gearing up for the ACC and NCAA Tournaments, Krzyzewski wants to make sure that his final year as the coach of the Blue Devils ends on a high note.

“And so, it’s time to move on,” he said. “Yeah, I wanna put this away, you know, the regular season. Now we’re in the 0-0 part of the season, and we’ll be that twice. We’ll be that right now until next Sunday or before. And then next Sunday will be it again. And hopefully the lessons that we’ve learned from playing the 31 games and, especially this last one, will help us in both those situations.”

96 former players attended Krzyzewski’s final home game as Duke’s head coach

There were nearly 100 former players that showed up to watch and honor Krzyzewski in his final game as Duke’s coach inside Cameron Indoor. The full list can be seen below.

All the Duke alums coming out to Coach K's last home game 😈 #CoachK

(via @DukeMBB) pic.twitter.com/bX7GUUop5x

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 5, 2022

While Krzyzewski appreciated all of the love that was thrown his way over the past few days, he also thinks that it led to Duke’s downfall against UNC.

“And we were never able to move to that level, and that’s on me to do that,” said Krzyzewski. “Then, the last few days have been really good. It’s been like a celebration of our program because I’m stopping coaching. It’s kind of like a celebration of me, which I don’t like that. But talked about a whole bunch of things and so basically we’re living in a penthouse the last few days with room service and everyone saying nice things.”