'Great day for college basketball': Coach K, Tom Izzo set for final NCAA Tournament battle
GREENVILLE, S.C. — It was inevitable, right?
From the moment the brackets were released last Sunday, a final meeting between Duke's Mike Krzyzewski and Michigan State's Tom Izzo seemed like an act of basketball predestination — a necessary conclusion between two coaches that have met more times than any other pair in the NCAA Tournament.
The second-seeded Blue Devils (29-6) took care of business with a 78-61 first-round win Friday night against No. 15 Cal State Fullerton and the seventh-seeded Spartans (23-12) held on for a thrilling 74-73 victory over No. 10 Davidson to set up what Izzo called "a great day for college basketball."
Indeed.
Duke and Michigan State will face each other at 5:15 p.m. ET Sunday at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena with a Sweet 16 berth in the West Regional semifinals awaiting the winner in what could be Coach K’s final game as the Blue Devils' basketball coach.
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Sunday will be the sixth time Coach K and Tom Izzo have clashed in the NCAA Tournament, bypassing the five matchups between Roy Williams and Bill Self and between Eddie Sutton and Denny Crum. But it's also the earliest these two have ever met in the NCAAs.
"I didn't want to look ahead, dream of the matchup because you get a chance at one more time to play against maybe the all-time great, as they say about LeBron or they say about Michael," Izzo said after the win over Davidson. "In the coaching world, the GOAT is the team we'll play. It's been earned. It's not been given. It's been earned.”
Coach K smiled Saturday when reporters told him of Izzo’s compliment.
"I'm glad he didn't call me another animal," he quipped. "So that was kind of him to do that."
Behind the competitive nature is a friendship borne from shared experience and sustained success in college basketball.
They've combined for 151 NCAA tournament wins, with Krzyzewski's 98 wins the most all time and Izzo's 53 fifth-most. They are tied for the most consecutive NCAA tournament appearances at 24 with Krzyzewski's streak ending last year.
Coach K has the tournament's best winning percentage at .765 with Izzo third at .706.
Izzo spoke with admiration about Krzyzewski's impact on the game.
"You talk about consistency. You talk about guys staying with the same program. You talk about how long guys are going to coach. Man, if that record's broken -- and I know they're all meant to be broken -- but someone's going to have to start right out of the womb to break that record, I think, in the future," he said.
The two chatted briefly Saturday in the bowels of the Greenville arena between team practices and media availability. The two are in contact often during the season and both are members of an ad hoc committee that met weekly on Zoom with NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt to discuss the problems facing the sport.
“We had good ideas, we just didn't know where to send them,” Krzyzewski said. “And who wanted to hear them.”
Izzo’s not above listening to some good ideas, especially if it comes from Krzyzewski.
He admitted to lifting some words of wisdom he heard Coach K used after his Michigan State team lost to Duke in the 1999 national semifinal.
“I heard him talking about winning the weekend, and that has definitely been stolen,” Izzo said Saturday. “I've stolen that, and I realize that (at) Michigan State, winning the game, we started going on you win the first game, let our staff help you win the second game because the first game, you get four days to prepare for it. But the second day, you get one.”
It’s part of what’s made Izzo’s Spartan teams so good in the NCAA Tournament. He’s won 79% of tournament games when playing on a one-day turnaround. That success, though, hasn’t always applied when facing Duke.
Krzyzewski has ended Izzo's season three times: in the 1999 and 2015 Final Four and the Sweet 16 in 2013. Izzo has done the same twice: eliminating the Blue Devils in the Sweet 16 in 2005 and shocking a Zion Williamson-led Duke team in the 2019 Elite Eight.
Duke’s starting five may have been devoid of NCAA Tournament experience, but it’s well acquainted with this Michigan State team. The Blue Devils and Spartans have played at least once the past six years, including the Spartans’ 75-69 win in an empty Cameron Indoor last season.
“I played them my freshman year as well,” said Duke junior forward Wendell Moore, who is 1-1 against Michigan State. “Both games have been hard-fought battles. Definitely looking forward to another one tomorrow.”
A win for Duke will send Coach K to the Sweet 16 for the 26th time, clinch another 30-win season and give him his 1,200th career victory. Izzo lost his first nine games to Krzyzewski but is 3-3 since with wins over Duke in two of the past three games.
He’s now in position to send Krzyzewski into retirement, a notion he’s not particularly comfortable with, although he’d prefer it over the alternative.
“That's part of life,” Izzo said. “But for 40 minutes, I'll bet you Mike wants to beat the hell out of me, and I bet you I want to beat the hell out of him. And what happens after, only time will tell.”
David Thompson is an award-winning reporter for the USA Today Network covering NC State and Duke athletics. Follow him on Twitter at @daveth89.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY NETWORK: Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, MSU's Tom Izzo's final NCAA Tournament battle
