On Saturday night, Mike Krzyzewski coached his final basketball game and it did not end how he hoped it would as Duke fell to North Carolina by a score of 81-77.
Following the game, Krzyzewski had a message for his players.
From MLive:
“Just how proud of them we are,” he said after the game. “The brotherhood they have developed. They are double champions, regular season and West Regional champs. Thirty-two wins, are you kidding me? In this my final year with this team, they’ve been magnificent. I’m so proud of them. I love them. Right now it is our responsibility to take care of them and make sure they are OK. They are really down, especially the younger players.
“I’ll deal with me later,” he said. “For me, my entire time coaching I always wanted at the end of the year for the last game to be either crying for joy or you are crying for sorrow. And if you are, that means you put everything into it. I have a bunch of kids who are crying. I’m proud of them. They have been a joy to coach. They have played winning basketball, and they did tonight, too.”
Whether you love Coach K or hate him, you have to respect the fact that he has always given his all to the young men he has coached.
Congrats on a great career, Coach K.