Believe it or not, Duke wasn?t always Duke.
Cameron Indoor as a way of life; the Crazies a raucous, linear interpretation of winning as an extension of their presence.
And Durham, North Carolina almost didn?t become Krzyzewskiville.
Walk-up lines begat sleeping bags. Sleeping bags begat tents. But winning begat the waiting. And in the early 1980s, Mike Krzyzewski was still waiting for his Blue Devils to click.
Enter: 1984. The first of Coack K?s 25 20-win seasons at Duke to date. And their first March dance card together.
Two years later the Blue Devils produced 37 wins and a runner-up finish. By the turn of the decade, Duke was on the verge of hanging back-to-back national championship banners.
In the two decades since, they?ve climbed the season-long ladder that ends with cutting down championship nets twice more.
Annual contenders. Conference and national front-runners. The current defending champs.
Communication is their calling card. Simply: there?s a reason Coach K?s Blue Devils are talked about more than anybody else - they talk to each other on the floor.
Forcefully. Encouraging. Carrying out his message of leadership.
Congratulations are in order: tonight, Coach K became just the fifth coach in college basketball history to win 800 games at one school.
Under the leadership of one man, Duke became the envy of almost every program in the land.
Source: http://inside.nike.com/blogs/nikebasketball/2010/11/23/coach-k-800-wins-at-duke
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