Vegas Line at this writing: Duke -7 (No total at writing)
History could be made today in New York when Duke faces St. Johns at the mecca of college basketball, Madison Square Garden. Blue Devil head coach Mike Krzyzewski bids for his milestone 1000th career win and it couldn’t come at a more appropriate place. Former Coach K player Jay Williams said on ESPN this week that Duke considers Madison Square Garden to be “Cameron Indoor North”. In fact, Coach K became college basketball’s all time win leader on this ery floor beating Michigan State 74-69 for his 903rd win passing friend and mentor Bobby Knight on November 15, 2011.
These two storied programs used to play on a yearly basis but this is the first meeting in three years. The Blue Devils have won eight of the last nine in the series but were waxed by the Johnnies 93-78 their last time in back in 2011. Krzyzewski’s current career record stands at 999-308 in 35 years coaching Army and Duke. His first win came in 1975 with the Cadets when Army beat Lehigh, then coached by future NBA head coach Brian Hill, 56-29. We almost never heard of Coach K as his first three Duke teams combined to go just 38-47 but his 1982 recruiting class that included Johnny Dawkins, Jay Bilas and Marc Alaire got things going in the right direction.
Coach K Milestones
4 NCAA Division I Tournament Championships
8 NCAA Division I Tournament Championship games
11 NCAA Regional Championships (Final Fours)
13 ACC Tournament Championships
12 ACC Regular Season Championships
13 NCAA Tournament Elite Eights
National College Basketball Coach of the Year 2X
Naismith College Basketaball Coach of the Year 3X
ACC Conference Coach of the Year 5X
Team’s he’s beaten the most: Maryland 55, Georgia Tech 53, Clemson 52
Record as Head Coach: 999-308
82-26 NCAA Tournament
2-2 NIT
54-19 ACC Tournament
Duke: This year the No.5 Blue Devils are 16-2 and off back-to-back wins after suffering back-to-back losses at North Carolina State and to Miami. In those games, the Wolf Pack and Hurricanes shot a combined 52% from the floor including a combined 20-36 from beyond the arc. The Blue Devils are 3-1 in their four true road games with wins at Wisconsin, Louisville and Wake with the loss in Raleigh. Duke had won their first 14 games, all by double-digits. The Blue Devils are led by true freshman big man Jahlil Okafor who averages 18.6 ppg while pulling down 8.9 boards per. Senior guard Quinn Cook chips in with 14.2 ppg while knocking down better than 38% of his threes.
St John’s: The Johnnies have fallen on hard times of late since the glory years of the 80’s and 90’s that saw “The Sweater” Lou Carneseca patrol the sidelines guiding the likes of Chris Mullin, Walter Berry, Mark Jackson, Willie Glass and Malik Sealy among others. Steve Lavin has made some headway with the program and the Red Storm were ranked as high as No.15 in early December before the Johnnies opened conference play going 2-4 with home losses to Butler and Villanova. D’Angelo Harrison is second in the Big East in scoring with a 19.5 average but he’s been nursing a calf injury of late and is off B2B 11 point games that saw him shoot 5-28 from the field. St John’s is “short” on size and it will likely be up to the athletic and crafty 6’6 Sir’Dominic Pointer (11.2, 7.3) to deal with the much bigger Okafor.
Allen’s Angles
Duke is 13-26 ATS in L39 vs the Big East
The Over is 23-13 in Duke’s L36 vs the Big East
The Blue Devils are 1-5 ATS the L3 years with 5+ days rest
The Johnnies are 6-2 ATS vs. non-conference opponents, the Under 7-1 in those games
The Under is 4-0 the L3 year when St Johns plays the ACC