mike krzyzewski west point

Mike Krzyzewski West Point - Army has never been a college basketball powerhouse. Heck, they're not the home of college basketball. West Point has had one winning season in 24 years and hasn't made the postseason since Mike Krzyzewski took the team to the NIT in 1978.

As noted countless times over the past week, Army is one of the original 120 Division I teams not to make the NCAA Tournament, joining The Citadel, Northwestern, St. Francis (NY) and William & Mary. (The latter two teams lost their conference finals this week.) But, oddly enough, in 1968, the Black Knights

Mike Krzyzewski West Point

Make the NCAA Tournament. So why are they on this embarrassing list? Because Bobby Knight, a 28-year-old third-year coach, turned down the offer.

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In 1967-68, the Knights, led by Polish point guard Mike Krzyzewski, went 20-5, still the best winning percentage in team history. (Army has only had four 20+ win seasons since the game began in 1902.) When the NCAA bid was extended, why did Knight accept it?

As with all ancient stories, there are many interpretations, and it's hard to know exactly what to believe. More importantly, the college basketball landscape was very different back then. The NCAA Tournament isn't what it is today, and being denied a bid was common in the 1940s and '50s. But in the 1960s, the NCAAs, with few exceptions, were seen by many as targets. So why did Knight pass up the chance to play in the not-so-big dance?

Jon Feinstein wrote that Knight declined the NCAA invitation because he believes the Black Knights have a good chance to win the NIT and Lou Alcindor and UCLA play in the NCAA. (Knight was right that the Bruins won the title.) Also, Madison Square Garden was close enough to West Point (about 60 minutes away) that the team wanted its cadet corps to be where the NCAA sent its cadets. Part of the action. And the NIT was a boon for Army in the 1960s, when the team made the tournament seven times in 10 years, including four in Knight's five seasons at the helm.

After Knight's departure, the team went through a series of horrendous losing years, including a 3-22 mark in 1975, which led to the hiring of a Polish point guard with a difficult-to-spell name. In his third season, Mike Krzyzewski led Army to its last 20 wins. In his fourth season, the team played for the last time. Krzyzewski was hired by Duke despite going 9-17 in 1980. The rest is history.

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Ironically, the 1968 NIT did not go well for Army. Bob Kinney, Army's director of sports information, explains why. "We were the first team selected to play in the NIT in 1968," he said. “We drew two Irish officials at Notre Dame on St. Patrick's night and lost the opening round by four. Everything was real."

There have been signs of life at West Point lately. The team has been playing (right) .500 basketball for the past three years and had its first winning season since 1985. Perhaps one day the streak will end and Bobby Knight's 47-year decision will be forgotten for the ages.

The Washington State Cougars (9-13, 4-7 Pac-12) will look to snap a three-game losing streak when they host the Arizona State Sun Devils (15-6, 6-4 Pac-12) at 8:00 p.m. p.m. PM ET, Saturday, January 28, 2023. The Sun Devils are also riding a three-game losing streak. In its previous game, Washington State fell to Arizona 63-58, with Justin Powell (15 PTS, 9 REB, 54.55 FG%) leading the way. And Mouhamed Gueye (15 PTS, 10 REB, 2 BLK, 31.58 FG%) is the leader. Arizona State lost 69-66 to Washington last time on the road and was led by Desmond Cambridge.

Looking to build on a five-game winning streak at Portland Pilots (11-12, 3-5 WCC) on Saturday, January 28, 2023 at No. 14 Gonzaga Bulldogs (17-4, 6-1 WCC) expect. 19:00 ET. Portland lost its last game on the road at Loyola Marymount 79-60. His top performers were Moses Wood (15 PTS, 8 REB, 2 STL, 2 BLK, 44.44 FG%) and Chika Nduka (12 PTS, 71.43 FG%). In its previous game, Gonzaga beat Pacific Ocean 99-90. trova Drew Thiem (38 PTS, 2 BLK, 73.91 FG%) and Rasir Bolton (16 PTS, 66.67 FG%) were his top performers. Here it is...

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The Washington Huskies (13-9, 5-6 Pac-12) have won 3 straight home games, beating No. 6 hosts the Arizona Wildcats (18-3, 7-3 Pac-12). It begins on Saturday, January 28, 2023 at 5:30 PM ET. In their last game, Washington beat Arizona State 69:66 at home. Arizona won with its top performers Keon Brooks Jr. (22 PTS, 7 REB, 3 BLK, 34.78 FG%, 3-8 from 3PT) and Noah Williams (18 PTS, 8 REB, 2 STL, 37.5 FG%) : The last time Washington State was 63-58, Azoulas Tubellis (18 PTS, 12 REB, 56.25 FG%) was the leader... BLOOMINGTON - In early 1974, Indiana University coach Bob Knight assembled his team for preseason practice. . Next to him stood a thin, nondescript man with black hair. He is much bigger than the knight players.

"We didn't know who he was," team captain John Laskowski said. “We know he played Coach Knight in the military. We know he's from Chicago.

Knight said the man had just left the military and wanted to start a career in coaching. He serves as a graduate assistant and should be respected as much as any other coach.

"I've been in contact with coach Knight throughout my five years at Army and played a lot of ball and coached at Army," Krzyzewski said in a statement Duke University provided to The Star. "I wanted to train."

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Duke declined a request to interview Krzyzewski for this article, but did provide the Blue Devils coach's comments about his year in Bloomington.

Knight's 1974-75 team would go on to go undefeated through the Elite Eight, falling to Kentucky by two points. If star forward Scott May hadn't broken his arm, team members claim today, the Hoosiers would have won the national championship. It proved a jumping-off point for the 1975-76 team, which went 32-0, the last team in college basketball to finish undefeated.

Although it was one of the defining moments of Knight's legacy, that season marked the beginning of the career of his protégé, a man who would eventually match or surpass many of Knight's own accomplishments.

To be fair, Krzyzewski's memories of his one year in Bloomington (he left the following season to take the Knight's old Army job) are spotty. The only photo of Krzyzewski in the university archives is from his time as an assistant on the Knights' 1979 All-American Games team.

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He joined IU's business school to pursue an MBA, which he says was born out of a desire to learn not only coaching, but also the business side of the profession and managing the many demands of being a head coach.

Few people remember him. Laskovsky has remained close over the years. Steve Green, another captain on that team, remembers the occasional conversation. Keith Klingelhofer, who worked at Indiana for more than four decades before his retirement, said the players "remember (Krzyzewski) better than I do."

The grad assistant position no longer exists. Although he participated in practices, players recalled that Krzyzewski spent most of his time studying and watching.

He got his big moment midway through the season after the Hoosiers established themselves as one of the top teams in the country.

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According to Laskowski, one of the Knight's rituals is pitting the first team against the second team for team scrimmages. He sometimes delegated the management of one or two departments to assistants.

One day he handed over the first team to Krzyzewski. Top Hoosiers rallied around a young man who would eventually become a Hall of Famer.

"I think (Krzyzewski) was very surprised by this opportunity, his first opportunity to really coach this team, which was really good at the time," Laskowski said. "We circled around him and he didn't really say anything."

“Mike, according to Knight Laskowski, I'm giving you the #1 team in the country and you're not telling them anything. Now you go out there and tell them what you have to do."

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Knight is known for using former players as models of success for current Hoosiers to follow. With his early Indiana teams, he often boasted about how smart, tough, and hardworking his Army teams were.

"What's interesting about Mike is that all the stories we've heard about coach Knight and his Army players, this is the first time we've really gotten along," Green said. “They were like rock stars, legends, because we were listening