Jay Bilas, an ESPN college basketball analyst who played for Duke University from 1982 to 1986, described in a March 2024 interview how head coach Mike Krzyzewski simplified the second-year 64-team NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament bracket for his team.[1]
Krzyzewski, who coached Duke from 1980 to 2022 and won five national titles, focused the Blue Devils on smaller four-team brackets. In Bilas's senior year, Duke entered as the No. 1 seed in the East Region.[1][2]
The team played its first- and second-round games at Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina, defeating Mississippi Valley State 85-78 on March 14 and Old Dominion 78-55 on March 16.[2][3] Krzyzewski referred to these games as the "Greensboro Invitational," according to Bilas.[1]
Duke then advanced to the East Regional at Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where it beat DePaul 70-49 in the Sweet 16 on March 21 and Navy 71-67 in overtime in the Elite Eight on March 23. Navy's center David Robinson scored 29 points in the loss.[2][3] Bilas called this the "Meadowlands Invitational."[1]
Duke reached the Final Four in Dallas but lost to Louisville 72-64 in the semifinal on March 29.[2][3] Bilas credited Krzyzewski's method with reducing pressure, noting it helped the team ignore the other 32 teams in their half of the bracket until the championship game.[1]
"I don't remember what happened in that 1986 tournament [outside our games] because of the way Coach K presented it to us," Bilas said.[1]
Sources
- Fox News Digital. "Jay Bilas remembers Coach K’s March Madness trick that helped Duke win games." March 16, 2024. https://www.foxnews.com/sports/jay-bilas-remembers-coach-ks-march-madness-trick-helped-duke-win-games
- NCAA.com. "1986 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament." Accessed October 2024. https://www.ncaa.com/history/basketball-men/d1/1986
- Sports-Reference.com. "1986 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament." Accessed October 2024. https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/postseason/1986-NCAAM.html
