Michigan State and Izzo looking to end a run of futility against Krzyzewski and Duke

WASHINGTON – There is no question that Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski is the gold standard when it comes to NCAA Tournament success: five national championships, a record 97 victories, 12 appearances in the Final Four and 16 Elite Eight games.

Tom Izzo is no slouch on the sideline, either, when it comes to the success he’s enjoyed at Michigan State (31-6). He will lead the Spartans into the Elite Eight for the 10th time Sunday in the East Regional final, when they take on the No. 1 overall seed Blue Devils (32-5) for a berth in the Final Four.

But no, Izzo is not thrilled with his head-to-head record against Krzyzewski – 1-3 in NCAA games, 1-11 overall.

“I’ve got a lot of goals,” Izzo said Saturday after his team’s closed practice at Capital One Arena. “I think I could focus in on making one of them the game tomorrow night and see if we could change that 1-11 record. I figured that we’ve played them a lot, played them down there [in Durham, N.C.] a lot, played them in different events and we’ve knocked on the door.

“It hasn’t opened yet. One of these days, it’s going to open.”

Krzyzewski dismissed his lopsided advantage over Izzo, saying, “I’m not a big believer in coaches’ records against one another.”

“It’s not like you have the same team, the same circumstance,” he said. “Somebody might have been injured. It’s a time where your team wasn’t functioning as well. You play the team that you’re going to play against right now. And they’re capable of handing us a defeat. It doesn’t make any difference what’s happened in the past, really.”

The Blue Devils are coming off back-to-back games that came down to the opponent’s final possession. They squeaked by Central Florida, 77-76, in the second round last Sunday after Aubrey Dawkins’ follow-up tip hung on the rim and fell out.

Then Friday night, Virginia Tech had three opportunities – two missed three-point shots and a lobbed inbound pass that Ahmed Hill couldn’t convert in the lane – and the Blue Devils emerged with a 75-73 win.

Duke played that game without freshman Cam Reddish, the Westtown School product who was scratched from the lineup with a knee injury just before tipoff. Krzyzewski, who met with the media before his team’s practice, called Reddish’s status for Sunday “a game-time decision” but said nothing was structurally wrong with his knee.

With Reddish out, Duke’s other three freshmen took over – Zion Williamson with 23 points, Tre Jones 22 and eight assists, R.J. Barrett 18 and 11 assists.

The Spartans, meanwhile, have won their three games by an average margin of 16 points, with their latest an 80-63 victory over LSU. Point guard Cassius Winston is averaging 18.7 points and 7.0 assists in the tournament.

“They’re a really good team,” Winston said. “They earned their position to be in the situation that they’re in. I feel like we’re a really good team also and we earned to be in this situation, too. So we’ve both got good coaches. We’ve both got good programs. It comes down to executing and which team plays the hardest.”