Mark Dolejs- US PRESSWIRE
Duke Head coach Mike Krzyzewski is a man of tradition, there is no denying that. Coach K has been at the helm in Durham since 1980, and four NCAA Championships, 11 final four appearances, 12 ACC regular season titles, and 13 ACC tournament championships later, Krzyzewski still carries a great deal of pride in the strength of his conference.
But recently, there have been schools that want to shake things up, and realign conferences for no other reason than the almighty dollar. These programs are throwing decades of rivalry in the dumpster, money is more important than history right?
One such school is the University of Maryland, who agreed to join the Big 10 after being part of the ACC for nearly 60 years.
Coach K feels betrayed by this, Duke leads the all-time series 110-61, and he wants the beatings to continue.
Here is what Krzyzewski said on his Sirius XM radio show:
“”A lot of these decisions are based on college presidents, chancellors and athletic directors who do not have a depth of understanding of the tradition of the institutions that they are leading. … If you’re running a business for a long time, you would be interested primarily in what is your brand. … And when you give that up, what price is that? What does that do? The fact that there’ll never be a Duke-Maryland game again. There may never be a Texas-Texas A&M game again, a Syracuse-Georgetown game again. Those schools aren’t going schedule one another. I mean, that’s not going to happen. And in Maryland’s case, that’s the only conference they’ve known. And they’re right in the middle of the ACC. And now their fans, they don’t have a place. They’re outsiders. They really are outsiders. What price? What price is paid for that?”
Whew. This guy isn’t messing around. And he didn’t stop there.
“This is an assault on tradition. What sets us apart from the pros? What sets us apart from the rest of the world? Intercollegiate sports is really something that only the United States has. No other country has that. And our thing is based on all the right values: loyalty, honesty, tradition. The branding that you have gotten from doing that has elevated the academic institutions that those athletic programs represent. And doing things the way we’re doing it now, based on money, I think it takes away from the academic missions and the innocence that an academic institution has.”
Though some of this may be an emotional response, Krzyzewski makes a lot of valid points. We live in a money hungry country and it is evident that history and tradition have a chance to falter if a little extra cash is thrown on the table.
The Blue Devils will host the Terrapins on Jan. 26th. If playing one of the top teams in the nation wasn’t enough, now Maryland has personally offended one of the elite head coaches of all time. This could get really interesting.
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