As the sun set over the Hudson Highlands, remnants of the first snowfall of the season, which flurried through hours earlier, remained flecked on the dead leaves and dying grass.
With the temperature hovering in the mid-30s on this Veterans Day, hundreds of fans in Duke Blue waited in line for nearly an hour on the steep staircase outside Christl Arena. They were here to witness a rarity (a power-conference program playing a road game against a Patriot League opponent) and a one-time-only celebration: Mike Krzyzewski, a 1969 graduate of West Point, was earning honors and a permanent banner bearing his name in Christl Arena.
“West Point was the basis of everything I’ve done in my professional career,” Krzyzewski told the sold-out crowd prior to No. 4 Duke’s 114-59 victory vs. Army on Tuesday night.
Why it took until Krzyzewski was 78 for the school to pin a pennant in its basketball arena to venerate its most famous sports alum is anyone’s guess, but the Hall of Famer was awed and humbled all the same. Saving the occasion until 2025 did offer up a nice anniversary, too.
Mike Krzyzewski stands with cadets ahead of Tuesday night’s Duke-Army game.
“Fifty years ago this month. The first time I was a head coach,” Krzyzewski said. “Fifty years later, and all the success we’ve had, it’s really a result of the foundation and everything I learned here at the Academy as a leader, but also here at the Academy as a coach. I want you to know that I’m so very proud to be a graduate of this university.”
The scene was special and unusual, another plus in this year’s more-loaded-than-usual November schedule in college basketball. Cadets crowded the bleachers at both ends of the arena, immaculately decked in their to-the-neck, slate-gray uniforms. At one point, Krzyzewski talked with students on the baseline. They were from Colorado, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and beyond, all of them having sprinted over less than an hour before, when they completed evening formation.
“It was cool to think about how he was in our shoes many years ago,” Johan Moon, a cow (West Point’s terminology for a junior-year student) said.
In the stands, those in blue and/or white far outnumbered those black and gold. A group of Krzyzewski’s former classmates and players made the trip up, too. They flanked him on the court as Coach K received a plaque and flowers. Krzyzewski made sure to recognize them in his brief pre-game speech.
“The only thing that I would like to say is, you see banners being hung for the players,” Krzyzewski told the sold-out crowd at the conclusion of the pregame ceremony. “For a banner to be placed for a coach, it’s because they have great players.”
“Those cadets are doing something way more important than we are, serving our country and the commitment they’ve made,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “So for us to do this on Veterans Day was incredibly meaningful, to share this with Coach K and our players. They don’t get a lot of time to be around him.”
Scheyer loved the idea and the sides worked quickly to make it happen. Army coach Kevin Kuwik, who is also a veteran, said he could hardly believe his phone when he got the text about it two years ago. He said it took him maybe five seconds to type back an immediate yes.
Krzyzewski wasn’t in on any of the plans.
“We didn’t want to ask him first, ” Scheyer told CBS Sports. “We just wanted to get the game set up and told him, this is what we’re doing. You better come with us, please.”
The trip turned into an experiential history lesson for Duke’s players and staff. They toured the campus Monday, taking in as much as they could — with the exception of eating at the mess hall, to Coach K’s chagrin.
“We started with the game, and then we knew we had to make it something more than just coming up here to play a game, like we’d be falling short if we didn’t make the most of this and do what we did yesterday,” Scheyer said. “For us to understand the way of life, for these cadets, to understand just the complete sacrifice, the complete commitment. It’s higher than anything we do.”
On a night when college basketball had multiple ranked-on-ranked matchups, including No. 9 Kentucky vs. No. 12 Louisville returning to form, having a program like Duke on national television in an arena with a capacity of barely more than 5,000 was beautiful. Scheyer could have coasted when he got this job and taken the scheduling template from K, but he’s been as aggressive in his scheduling as just about any coach.
Krzyzewski was famously a fickle scheduler in the final third of his career at Duke. The Blue Devils of course played really good teams every November and December, but in Coach K’s last 15 years running the program, Duke seldom scheduled nonconference road games that weren’t previously mandated by the ACC’s TV contracts.
In this next era for Duke, everything Scheyer does comes with thoughtful intention to evolve Duke’s place in American sports. College basketball is better for it.
The last time the Blue Devils played a basketball game on this campus was also the last time Army hosted any power-conference program: 1997. It’s no surprise but a shame all the same that it took such a special occasion to make the game possible and for Army to get such a good opponent on its home base.
Army was never going to beat Duke, just like New Haven was never going to beat Penn State last weekend, nor was Howard going to beat Missouri when it hosted the Tigers on opening day. But having these games offers up variety and camaraderie on a level no other sport can equal. Giving mid-majors an opportunity to host these types of games in fact adds to college basketball’s appeal, all the more so in this era where the fracturing between power conferences vs. mid-majors seems wider than ever.
“I believe Duke is one of one,” Scheyer said. “With our scheduling, our guys want to be in these types of games. I told our team before the game, we’ve had five games, two exhibitions, but we’ve only played two home games, and so ultimately you have to win away from home. And so for us, combinations of playing home-and-homes, combination of neutral-site games, but most importantly, doing games that haven’t been done before … there’s no question we’re going to continue to schedule aggressively, because that’s what our players want, they want to be in these games.”
There is something small but precious to be gained, and almost nothing to lose, in seeing top-10 programs do what Duke did Tuesday night. A legend was honored, and hopefully an example was set that can be replicated by other big-time programs in the years to come.
