WATCH: Tony Bennett honors Coach K with classy speech, gift upon last game at Virginia
It’s the last season for college basketball coaching legend Mike Krzyzewski and tonight before Duke faced off against Virginia in Charlottesville, the Cavaliers honored him. Virginia head coach Tony Bennett took a few minutes before the game to talk about Coach K and what he’s meant to the game of college basketball over the years.
Then after the speech, Bennett gave Coach Krzyzewski a jersey with “Coach K” on it. Check out the video below.
At the half, Coach K’s Blue Devils led Virginia in this one, 30-25. Virginia’s Kihei Clark erupted for 18 points in the first half, all of them coming from beyond-the-arc.
Coach K Accolades
Coach K has won five national championships at Duke, including two years where he won back-to-back national crowns.
In winning back-to-back NCAA titles in 1991 and 1992, he became only the second coach to do so since John Wooden (Billy Donovan is the other).
The legendary basketball coach established an incredible level of dominance at Duke basketball during his previous 41 seasons there.
Krzyzewski, a member of the Naismith Hall-of-Fame, has won 1,170 games in his career, the most in college basketball history. As the head coach of Team USA basketball, he won six gold medals during his time.
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The iconic coach has enough accolades to fill up a few pages, but here are a few from his Duke coaching career: 15 ACC tournament championships (most in league history), 12 Final Four appearances (tied for most in NCAA history), 12 National Coach of the Year honors, 35 NCAA tournament bids (most by one coach), and 126 weeks ranked No. 1 in AP poll (most by a coach in poll history).
The Redeem Team was one of his best teams
One of Coach K’s most famous teams with Team USA basketball was dubbed “The Redeem Team”. The team was playing in the 2008 Olympics and USA had just won a disappointing bronze medal in 2004. The Redeem Team was absolutely loaded with talent; such stars as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, and others.
In the gold medal game against Spain, Kobe Bryant scored 13 of his 20 points in the final eight minutes of the contest. The game was a classic contest and Kobe Bryant ensured that Team USA would not be denied.
With 3:10 left in the game and USA up 104-99, Bryant unleashed a devastating dagger for the ages, a four-point play that saw him bring out the silencer for the hostile crowd in Beijing.
Kobe Bryant, nicknamed, “The Black Mamba” delivered a lethal dose of poison from which the Spainiards would not recover. Team USA would go on to defeat Spain in the contest 118-107, securing the gold medal for Coach K and Team USA.