“Look, they had a great crowd. I don’t want to demean the game by this. They played great. (Joe) Harris was unbelievable. That’s the story. Not what happened … we lost. That’s the story of the game. Please. This is not where I want to go with this.”
That was Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski after his third-ranked Blue Devils had just lost 73-68 at Virginia Thursday night, and after UVa. students rushed the court to celebrate the program’s first win over the Dookies since 2007.
“I don’t want to take away from Virginia’s great win,” Krzyzewski went on.
And on. And on. And on.
Right at half of Coach K’s brief postgame presser was devoted to breaking down what happened when the students rushed the court. You’d think it was the first time this season that kind of thing had happened.
“Celebrate, have fun, obviously you won, that’s cool, but just get our team off the court and our coaching staff before students come on,” Krzyzewski said. “Put yourself in a position with one of our players or coaches. I’m not saying anybody did this but the potential is there all the time for a fan to come up to you and say, ‘Coach, you’re a …’ What do you do? What if you did something? That would be the story, right? So we deserve that type of protection.”
The whining from Kryzezewski rings a tad hollow when you consider the multiple reports of Duke players and assistant coaches and Coach K himself dropping F-bombs on fans and security personnel on their way off the court.
And then the insults, minus the F-bombs, continued in the media room.
“Congratulations to them, and they should have fun and burn benches and do all that stuff, I’m all for that. They have a great school, great kids, but get us off the court,” Kryzezewski said.
Burn benches? Seriously? That’s what Virginia fans do after big wins?
The ACC, of course, will do nothing to upset its iconic coach, but it should. The F-bombs and the rest should not be tolerated no matter what the circumstances.
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Chris Graham
