WEST POINT, N.Y. — As the sun set over the Hudson Highlands, remnants of the first snowfall of the season, which flurried through hours earlier, remained flecked on the dead leaves and dying grass.With the temperature hovering in the mid-30s on this Veterans Day, hundreds of fans in Duke Blue waited in line for nearly an hour on the steep staircase outside Christl Arena. It was a once-in-a-lifetime event: a power-conference team played a Patriot League opponent on the road. “West Point was the basis of everything I’ve done in my professional career,” Krzyzewski told the sold-out crowd prior to No. 4 Duke’s 114-59 win vs. Army on Tuesday night. Who knows why it took until Krzyzewski, at the age of 78, for the school’s basketball arena to display a pennant to honor their most famous sports alumni. The Hall-of-Famer remained humble and awed. The 2025 anniversary was a great way to celebrate the event.
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“Fifty Years Ago This Month” Krzyzewski: “The first time I became a coach was in the year 2000. “Fifty-five years later and all of our success, it is really the result of everything I learned at the Academy, both as a leader and as a coach. I’m very proud to have graduated from this university.”The scene was special and unusual, another plus in this year’s more-loaded-than-usual November schedule in college basketball. The cadets were immaculately dressed in slate-gray uniforms, and crowded both ends of arena. The majority of the spectators in the stands were wearing white or blue. Krzyzewski was joined by a group of former teammates and classmates. Coach K received flowers and a plaque from them as they flanked Krzyzewski on the court. Krzyzewski acknowledged them during his brief speech before the game.Krzyzewski addressed the sold out crowd after the pre-game ceremony. “You see banners being hanged for the player,” he said. “If a banner is placed for a head coach, then they must have some great players.”
The game ended in a Duke win. Army was not going to be deterred by the size difference between both teams. Cameron Boozer scored 15 points with nine rebounds, five assists, four blocks, and two stoles. Dame Sarr, Duke’s freshman, led the team with 19 points. Jackson Furman is a good example of a freshman. He’ll always get to boast about being the top scorer of a game that included multiple future NBA stars. The 6-2 shooting-guard from Upper Marlboro in Maryland scored a game high of 20 points, which included five 3-pointers. Jon Scheyer, Duke’s coach, said that the cadets were doing something far more important than serving their country or making a commitment. It was very meaningful for us to do it on Veterans Day and share this experience with Coach K. The players don’t spend much time with him. “For me, it was something very meaningful.” Mike Krzyzewski with cadets before the Duke-Army match on Tuesday night.
Imagn Images
Scheyer got to tinker with different lineups and learn a bit more about his team, but the trip was about something much bigger — and was the latest example of Scheyer helping lead the way on creative nonconference scheduling. Scheyer has scheduled a two-game series with Arizona, and he’s got more games planned in the future.
Mike Schrage, former Elon coach and Scheyer’s chief staff for the last three seasons, came up with the idea in 2023. It looked at the time like college basketball would open its season in 2025, on Veterans Day. It was planned to start the season with a road match against Army in honor of veterans, and also as a way to try something new at Duke. Schrage’s father Dan played with Krzyzewski in the Army under Bob Knight, before graduating from Army in 1967 and going to Vietnam. Schrage and Krzyzewski both served as team captains under Knight in consecutive years. Scheyer was a fan of the idea. The sides acted quickly to get it done. Krzyzewski didn’t know about any of these plans. Scheyer said to CBS Sports, “We didn’t want him to know first.” We just wanted to set up the game and tell him what we were doing. Please come along with us.
The trip became an interactive history lesson. Duke University students toured the campus on Monday. They took in as much information as possible, but they did not eat at the mess hall. This was to Coach K’s dismay.Scheyer stated that “we started with the match, but then we knew that we had to do more than come up here and play a football game. We’d be failing if we didn’t make the most out of it and do what we accomplished yesterday.” “To understand this way of life and for the cadets to fully understand the sacrifice, commitment, we must first understand it.” It’s above anything we do.”
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On a day when there were several ranked-on ranked college basketball matchups including No. 9 Kentucky vs. No. It was wonderful to see 12 Louisville return to form and play in a venue with barely more than 5,001 seats, while a Duke program played on national TV. Scheyer had the option to coast when he was hired and take K’s template for scheduling, but has been as aggressive with his scheduling as almost any coach.
Krzyzewski, in the latter half of his Duke tenure, was known for being a fickle scheduling. In November and December the Blue Devils played some really good teams, but during K’s last 15 years as head coach, Duke rarely scheduled road games outside of conference that were not mandated by television contracts. Scheyer’s every move is a thoughtful one. It has made college basketball better. Army would have never beaten Duke just as New Haven never beat Penn State. The mid-majors can host these games, which adds to the appeal of the sport. Scheyer stated, “I think Duke is one.” “With our schedule, our players want to be involved in these type of games. I told our team before the game, we’ve had five games — two exhibitions — but we’ve only played two home games, and so ultimately you have to win away from home. And so for us, combinations of playing home-and-homes, combination of neutral-site games, but most importantly, doing games that haven’t been done before … there’s no question we’re going to continue to schedule aggressively, because that’s what our players want, they want to be in these games.”
It doesn’t have to be a high-major. It was also 1997 when Army last hosted any program from a power conference. It is not surprising, but it’s still a shame that the Army had to wait for such an occasion to host a top-notch opponent. Duke’s performance on Tuesday night was a small but valuable thing to gain, and there is almost nothing to loose. The legend was honored and hopefully, other top-tier programs can follow the example set by Duke in years to come.
2025-11-12 17:54:02
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