Mike Krzyzewski opens up on his final game, Duke-UNC matchup in Final Four

The end of Mike Krzyzewski’s historic coaching career was nearly worthy of a storybook. The Blue Devils returned to the Final Four for the first time since their championship run in 2015. It was even better because they had an opportunity to knock out and exact revenge on bitter rival North Carolina. That’s where the happy ending concluded. Duke would go on to lose to the Tarheels 81-77 in the national semifinal.

Krzyzewski spoke with Jon Rothstein on ‘College Hoops Today’ last week. He talked about the heavyweight bout and said he’s surprised it never happened before then.

“It’s kind of crazy that it only happened once because you have two of the Top 3 to 5 programs in the history of the game playing,” said Krzyzewski. “I’ve coached like 98 games against North Carolina and they’ve usually been where both teams have been ranked very high. Therefore you figure that teams that are ranked high advance in the tournament and probably should have met (before).”

The Duke versus North Carolina rivalry is by far the most electric in college basketball. It’s possibly one of the best in all of sports, if not the best. The record proves it as well. In 100 career games, Krzyzewski went 50-50 all-time against the Tarheels. That kind of even competition speaks volumes about the two programs and how seriously they take their games against the other.

In the end, though, Krzyzewski couldn’t beat them one last time in what was arguably the most impactful matchup in the rivalry’s history. While he wanted to compete for his sixth national title, he showed gratitude for the opportunity to coach in one of the sport’s all-time great games.

“It was an epic game,” said Krzyzewski. “(I was) proud to be a part of such a game and obviously proud to be in the Final Four.”

There’s no doubt Mike Krzyzewski would’ve rather gone out any other way than to UNC. However, the fact that that game took place was a gift to college basketball admirers. It may not have been Coach K’s storybook ending, but it was still a memorable end to one of the greatest coaches in the history of American sports.