DeCourcy article - K's 10 greatest wins

[fuse]

http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/story/2015-01-11/duke-coach-k-krzyzewski-best-biggest-craziest-career-wins/

While I might tweak the list some, a good read and trip down memory lane.

[AIRFORCEDUKIE]

How is the UNLV win not on the list?

[Sir Stealth]

How is the UNLV win not on the list?

It's Number 1 on the list.

[AIRFORCEDUKIE]

It's Number 1 on the list.

ohh haha, seems I skipped that one and went straight to 2!!! Thanks now it makes sense to me.

[MChambers]

Thanks for sharing this. It brings back good memories, although I think I'd have to include 82-50 on there.

[Tom B.]

No love for these?

March 10, 1984 (ACC Tournament Semifinal)-- Duke 77, UNC 75. After two close losses to Carolina in the regular season, Duke finally breaks through and defeats Jordan, Perkins, Daugherty, Kenny Smith and Co.
March 26, 1988 (NCAA East Region Final) -- Duke 63, Temple 53. Billy King harasses Mark Macon into a 6-for-29 shooting performance, makes him cry.
March 24, 1990 (NCAA East Region Final) -- Duke 79, UConn 78 (OT). The Shot before The Shot.

I'd drop Nos. 5, 9, and 10 from DeCourcy's list to make room.

Also, it's interesting that DeCourcy included only one national championship game, and no ACC championship games. How about our NCAA championship wins over Kansas (1991), Michigan (1992), or Arizona (2001)? How about our one-point (68-67) win over Georgia Tech for K's first ACC Tournament title in 1986? How about our 65-61 win in the 1988 ACC championship game, which completed K's first triple crown over Carolina?

You also could make a case for our 73-68 win over Tim Duncan & Co. at Wake Forest in 1997, which broke Wake's nine-game win streak against us.

Clearly this needs to be a Top 20 list.

[-jk]

Damn, I missed two of those... :)

-jk

[Kedsy]

Damn, I missed two of those... :)

-jk

I missed either two or three (I think I attended the #9 game, but they all start to blur together, so I'm not sure).

[gus]

#7-

*Jason* Capel?? Nice fact checking, sporting news.

[devildeac]

#7-

*Jason* Capel?? Nice fact checking, sporting news.

Jeff was better: Clap, clap, clap/clap/clap;).

[gam7]

In case anyone is wondering (this may be a post to myself), DeCourcy's games are numbered as follows on Nugget's list (http://forums.dukebasketballreport.com/forums/showthread.php?23568-Who-Doesn-t-Love-Lists-Coach-K-s-Top-Wins-and-Toughest-Losses-at-Duke):

1
3
6
8
NR
15
12
7
85
60

[gus]

Jeff was better: Clap, clap, clap/clap/clap;).

Apparently someone else noticed: it's been fixed.

That Perdue game was one where a freshman Capel really showed leadership and poise, taking over the offense when Grant Hill had to leave with 4 fouls. Glad it was fixed, because he was a star in that game.

[OldPhiKap]

No love for these?

March 10, 1984 (ACC Tournament Semifinal)-- Duke 77, UNC 75. After two close losses to Carolina in the regular season, Duke finally breaks through and defeats Jordan, Perkins, Daugherty, Kenny Smith and Co.
March 26, 1988 (NCAA East Region Final) -- Duke 63, Temple 53. Billy King harasses Mark Macon into a 6-for-29 shooting performance, makes him cry.
March 24, 1990 (NCAA East Region Final) -- Duke 79, UConn 78 (OT). The Shot before The Shot.

I'd drop Nos. 5, 9, and 10 from DeCourcy's list to make room.

Also, it's interesting that DeCourcy included only one national championship game, and no ACC championship games. How about our NCAA championship wins over Kansas (1991), Michigan (1992), or Arizona (2001)? How about our one-point (68-67) win over Georgia Tech for K's first ACC Tournament title in 1986? How about our 65-61 win in the 1988 ACC championship game, which completed K's first triple crown over Carolina?

You also could make a case for our 73-68 win over Tim Duncan & Co. at Wake Forest in 1997, which broke Wake's nine-game win streak against us.

Clearly this needs to be a Top 20 list.

Good additions. Temple clearly is a top 10, that was the first big tournamant upset of a team we "couldn't beat" according to most.

[DukieInKansas]

No love for these?

March 10, 1984 (ACC Tournament Semifinal)-- Duke 77, UNC 75. After two close losses to Carolina in the regular season, Duke finally breaks through and defeats Jordan, Perkins, Daugherty, Kenny Smith and Co.
March 26, 1988 (NCAA East Region Final) -- Duke 63, Temple 53. Billy King harasses Mark Macon into a 6-for-29 shooting performance, makes him cry.
March 24, 1990 (NCAA East Region Final) -- Duke 79, UConn 78 (OT). The Shot before The Shot.

I'd drop Nos. 5, 9, and 10 from DeCourcy's list to make room.

Also, it's interesting that DeCourcy included only one national championship game, and no ACC championship games. How about our NCAA championship wins over Kansas (1991), Michigan (1992), or Arizona (2001)? How about our one-point (68-67) win over Georgia Tech for K's first ACC Tournament title in 1986? How about our 65-61 win in the 1988 ACC championship game, which completed K's first triple crown over Carolina?

You also could make a case for our 73-68 win over Tim Duncan & Co. at Wake Forest in 1997, which broke Wake's nine-game win streak against us.

Clearly this needs to be a Top 20 list.

1991 - the win over UNLV got us to the final against Kansas and, given the trouncing they gave us the prior year, it was probably a bigger win. (More fun for me since I watched the semi-finals and finals with KU fans.)

2001 - the turnaround (33 point swing) against Maryland to get us to the finals was pretty impressive.

[OldPhiKap]

I'll throw in the 1992 Championship over the Fab Five, and even bigger I think -- beating Indians and Bobby Knight 81-78 in the Final Four to get to the championship game.

The Indiana game often gets lost between the UK classic round of 8 and the Fab Four beat down (second half) in the championship game, but not sure that any game had a more lasting impact on K than beating Kight. Especially after the "message" Knight sent to K before the game. That soured their relationship for years.

And just for kicks:

4652

[gus]

1991 - the win over UNLV got us to the final against Kansas and, given the trouncing they gave us the prior year, it was probably a bigger win. (More fun for me since I watched the semi-finals and finals with KU fans.)

2001 - the turnaround (33 point swing) against Maryland to get us to the finals was pretty impressive.

They're both on decourcy's list.

I still remember watching that UMD FF game at a bar in manhattan. When duke was down 20+, I remember having the final 54 seconds of regular time at UMD running through my head and thinking "there's plenty of time".

[Tom B.]

Good additions. Temple clearly is a top 10, that was the first big tournamant upset of a team we "couldn't beat" according to most.

People forget how good that Temple team was. Going into the 1988 NCAA Tournament, they were 29-1 and ranked #1 in the polls (they'd been ranked #1 since early February). In late February, they'd waltzed into the Dean Dome and whomped a pretty good Carolina team by 17. I think that loss remained Carolina's worst loss in the Dean Dome until we waxed Carolina on its home floor by 20 (81-61) in the last regular season game of 1999.

[Olympic Fan]

Just got around t reading DeCourcy's list.

While it's not the list I would have come up with -- I think some of the previous posters have made some good alternate suggestions -- still, it's a reasonable, defensive-able top 10.

With one exception.

I don't think No. 5 -- the 1984 Duke at Clemson game -- is nearly as important as DeCourcy thinks.

Yes, K was getting heat from some idiot fans, but the fact that Butters had just given Mike a new five-year contract in the days BEFORE the game was a potent answer to the critics. And if DeCourcy thinks beating Clemson at Clemson was that big a deal, he's wrong -- K's second team (and his worst team) had won in Littlejohn just two years before.

True, at some point, K was going to have to start winning ACC games to justify Butters' faith in him, but that's more a long term thing. I don't see that Clemson win in 1984 as anything significant. That team ended the season with three straight regular season losses -- including a homecourt loss to Clemson. It was the victory over No. 1 North Carolina in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament that K himself cites as his most significant early win. THAT game should be on the list, not Duke's win at Clemson.

One more thing -- it's a small point, but in the summary about the '84 Duke-Clemson game, DeCourcy claims that K had gone through three losing seasons at Duke -- not true ... his first year at Duke was 17-13.

[NSDukeFan]

Just got around t reading DeCourcy's list.

While it's not the list I would have come up with -- I think some of the previous posters have made some good alternate suggestions -- still, it's a reasonable, defensive-able top 10.

With one exception.

I don't think No. 5 -- the 1984 Duke at Clemson game -- is nearly as important as DeCourcy thinks.

Yes, K was getting heat from some idiot fans, but the fact that Butters had just given Mike a new five-year contract in the days BEFORE the game was a potent answer to the critics. And if DeCourcy thinks beating Clemson at Clemson was that big a deal, he's wrong -- K's second team (and his worst team) had won in Littlejohn just two years before.

True, at some point, K was going to have to start winning ACC games to justify Butters' faith in him, but that's more a long term thing. I don't see that Clemson win in 1984 as anything significant. That team ended the season with three straight regular season losses -- including a homecourt loss to Clemson. It was the victory over No. 1 North Carolina in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament that K himself cites as his most significant early win. THAT game should be on the list, not Duke's win at Clemson.

One more thing -- it's a small point, but in the summary about the '84 Duke-Clemson game, DeCourcy claims that K had gone through three losing seasons at Duke -- not true ... his first year at Duke was 17-13.

Being a spoiled Duke fan, isn't a losing season any year that Duke doesn't win 25 games? (;