Olympic Fan
11-21-2007, 12:54 PM
I was dozing off last night at the end of last night's game and may have missed it, but did ESPN mention that the Illinois win was Coach K's 779th career victory?
That ties him with Lou Henson for No. 8 on the Division I career win list. (Interesting coincidence that he tied Henson with a win over Illinois, where Henson did much of his best work).
K can obviously take sole possession of eighth place with a win tonight (or at worst Sunday over Eastern Kentucky).
Next on the list is No. 7 Lute Olson, who started the year with 781 wins. He's on a leave of absence with his Arizona team -- I haven't heard whether Arizona will count the wins and losses during his absence on his record or on the record of interim coach Kevin O'Neill. According to the NCAA rule that Duke used when K took his leave of absence in 1995, the school has the choice of assigning the games to either the permanent coach or the interim coach -- however, the choice must be made before the games are played.
I know Duke-haters are fond of ripping K for "dumping" the 1995 losses on Pete Gaudet (even though the decision was made when he left a 9-3 top 20 team), but I should point out that with Gaudet's four wins, K would already be ahead of Olson.
Don't know how that race will play out, but later this season season, K will be bearing down on No. 6 Lefty Driesell (786 wins) and No. 5 Eddie Sutton (798 wins).
No. 4 Jim Phelan will have to wait until next season or the year after -- he's in at 830 wins. After that, you have to go all the way up to Adolph Rupp's 876 wins and Dean Smith 879. Bob Knight started the year at 889 and will obviously top 900 wins at some point this season.
I think K will end this season at either 5 or 6 on the alltime win list (depending on what happens with Olson).
That ties him with Lou Henson for No. 8 on the Division I career win list. (Interesting coincidence that he tied Henson with a win over Illinois, where Henson did much of his best work).
K can obviously take sole possession of eighth place with a win tonight (or at worst Sunday over Eastern Kentucky).
Next on the list is No. 7 Lute Olson, who started the year with 781 wins. He's on a leave of absence with his Arizona team -- I haven't heard whether Arizona will count the wins and losses during his absence on his record or on the record of interim coach Kevin O'Neill. According to the NCAA rule that Duke used when K took his leave of absence in 1995, the school has the choice of assigning the games to either the permanent coach or the interim coach -- however, the choice must be made before the games are played.
I know Duke-haters are fond of ripping K for "dumping" the 1995 losses on Pete Gaudet (even though the decision was made when he left a 9-3 top 20 team), but I should point out that with Gaudet's four wins, K would already be ahead of Olson.
Don't know how that race will play out, but later this season season, K will be bearing down on No. 6 Lefty Driesell (786 wins) and No. 5 Eddie Sutton (798 wins).
No. 4 Jim Phelan will have to wait until next season or the year after -- he's in at 830 wins. After that, you have to go all the way up to Adolph Rupp's 876 wins and Dean Smith 879. Bob Knight started the year at 889 and will obviously top 900 wins at some point this season.
I think K will end this season at either 5 or 6 on the alltime win list (depending on what happens with Olson).