John Calipari on Mike Krzyzewski: "He's made me a better coach"

Tomorrow marks the start of college basketball season and, in turn, the Coach K Farewell Tour. This is Mike Krzyzewski’s final year as Duke’s head coach and you better believe it will be the biggest talking point on ESPN’s Champions Classic broadcast tomorrow night. This morning, Dave Baker got a head start, asking John Calipari about what could be his final matchup vs. Coach K.

“The stuff about Coach K, look, he’s made me a better coach,” Calipari said. “He’s kept me sharper. We did things those first five or six years that, you know, Duke started taking the same kind of guys and it became that competition back and forth. But I’ve never lost respect for what he’s been able to do over 40 years.

“Do you know many times you have to change the way you coach and what you do? It doesn’t mean the principles, the pillars of your program change, but how you defend, how you play offensively, how you teach, what’s more important. To do it over 40 years, incredible. At one place, incredible. Coach (Adolph) Rupp, you can say the same thing. How do you do it that long in place and still have a level of that excellence that you have?”

Calipari vs. Krzyzewski

Krzyzewski has a 6-2 record vs. Kentucky and a 3-1 record vs. Calipari, 2-1 while Cal’s been at Kentucky. The Blue Devils beat the Cats 75-68 in the 2012 Champions Classic and, more memorably, 118-84 in the 2018 Champions Classic. The Cats’ only win vs. Duke in the event happened in 2015, a 74-63 victory at the United Center in Chicago. Always a competitor, Calipari said he embraces the challenge of going up against the all-time winningest coach in the sport.

“I’ll tell you what, he’s been great for all coaches. He’s been great for all coaches. And I like the competition of going against the absolute best. You go, and whether I was young coaching against Coach (Dean) Smith, you have an opportunity. Coaching against Hall of Fame coaches, that’s where you want to see where you are in preparing your team. What’s he doing now that’s different?”

After Kentucky’s 80-71 exhibition win over Miles College on Friday, Calipari said what happens in the Champions Classic isn’t necessarily a barometer for the season, reminding reporters how the 2018-19 team got embarrassed by Duke in the Champions Classic and ended up going to the Elite Eight. No matter what happens tomorrow night, Calipari hopes both teams are good enough that a rematch in March is possible.

“Now, I’m hoping this isn’t the last time we play them, so don’t make any mistake about that,” Cal said. “I hope we play them one more.”