Off topic, but since there’s lots of other discussion here about basketball in general, I had to notice a couple things about last nights game. One was that even with all the emotional buildup (maybe too much), 96 former players and all kinds of dignitaries on hand, being favored to win and being 4th ranked , etc, Duke got their butt kicked by NC. The others thing that jumps out to me is that 4 NC players scored 20 or more points. That’s got to be really rare.

I listened to Sirius radio yesterday morning as I drove to Denver, and there was a lot of discussion about Coach K’s place among the greatest men’s basketball coaches of all time. The names mostly mentioned were K, Knight and Wooden. What do you guys think?

I think it's Wooden and Coach K, in that order.

Knight doesn't really belong in the conversation, honestly. The career wins total is nice, obviously. But all of his national championships came in a single decade, and there were none after 1990. Considering he coached for another 18 years, that's not ideal.

Based on numbers alone, Roy Williams should probably be ahead of Knight. More championships and final fours.

I'm sure that over 42 years of coaching he probably looked the other way or stretched some rules to get or keep some players on the team. There probably isn't a coach who's never done that sort of thing. But I don't recall there ever being a story about him abusing players, or degrading them, and I've never seen him throw a temper tantrum in the middle of a game. So I'd rate him high on the list.

On a somewhat personal note, I have a nephew in northwest Ohio who's a great Duke fan. One summer he and his family were going to the NC shore for a vacation and he wrote Coach K to ask about stopping in for a short visit. Coach K said sure, come on by. Not only did they get a personal tour of Cameron, they each got a really nice swag bag. I don't recall if Coach K was actually there (I think it was an Olympic year), but my nephew was incredibly impressed with the treatment they got.

As for yesterday, I thought ESPN really blew it by scheduling games as tightly as they did. They had this big buildup for the ceremonies surrounding Coach K, then the Texas-Kansas game went into OT and wiped out their live coverage of it.

As for Dakich, if he's a Knight suck-up then he might have some ill-feelings toward Coach K. There was a story about how Knight and Coach K were at some function and the Coach went over to Knight's table to say hello. Knight totally ignored him, and the two haven't spoken since. Not sure what the issue was, but Coach K just stopped reaching out to Knight after that.

From what I´ve heard, Knight is now sadly suffering from some type of dementia.

I can vouch for this. I had a very similar story happen back in 2000. I was heading to outer banks for spring break and, being a lifelong Duke fan, decided to stop by Durham and get some pictures in Cameron. When I went in I actually found the team in the middle of a practice in preparation for that weekends Sweet 16 NCAA tournament game in Syracuse. My parents and I watched a bit, walked around the concourse admiring national champ trophies etc and eventually made our way down to court level.

After practice, not wanting to be a pest but also not wanting to miss the opportunity I asked Coach K for a quick autograph. He asked who we were and we explained we were huge fans just stopping through. He admitted he was in a hurry because the team was going from practice straight to a team meal and then they were loading the bus for the airport. But he said if we were willing to wait about an hour he'd be back and sign whatever I wanted and he'd have some time. At this point leaving was no longer an option.

After about 30 minutes people, fans and family started showing up to see the team off for the NCAAs. Coach K returned to see us, signed about 3 things but better actually sat and talked to us for a good 10 minutes about sports, school, being a fan from Ohio etc before introducing us to his wife Mickie (she and my mom got along great lol) and then even calling some of the players and staff over to chat with us. Met Wojo and Johnny Dawkins who were on the staff at the time. Both great guys. Even got a brief shake of hands, and wishing good luck with Chris Carrawell, Shane Battier and Carlos Boozer.

Saw them all off to the bus where Coach K turned and waved to me and said something like "Thanks for always rooting for us from Ohio. We'll need it this weekend"

One of the nicest, most genuine and totally unexpected and cool experiences of my life to that point. I was legitimately a nobody who shouldn't have even been there and yet in the midst of being busy and preparing a team for an NCAA trip and game he made time for me and my family. I'll never forget it.

He's the GOAT for a reason.

I have a similar story about Coach K's generosity.

My dad and Coach K were classmates at West Point. They knew each other, but weren't super close or anything, but back when Coach K was coaching at Army, the K family and my folks were neighbors.

Because of that connection, we watched a lot of Duke basketball and as a kid I became a big fan. Prior to the 1991 tournament, I drew a picture of Bobby Hurley playing against UNLV, and the scoreboard showed Duke winning at the buzzer. My dad mailed it to Coach K along with a short note wishing him luck in the tournament.

Coach K used to come up to West Point quite a bit during offseasons. He remained a sort of unofficial advisor to Army basketball, and usually played an unofficial role in selecting coaches, etc. That summer they had some sort of event honoring him for his first national championship, and my Dad took me along. Coach K was in this sort of receiving line, and when I shook his hand and introduced myself he said "Oh, you're [name]? I have something for you!" and walked over and handed me a photograph and a poster. The photograph was of my picture I'd drawn, showing that it had been hanging in Cameron Indoor Stadium outside the locker room. There was also a poster of the team, signed by Coach K, Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill, and a whole bunch of others.

These are really neat stories about Coach K. Thanks for sharing them.