JEFF CAPEL, MIKE KRZYZEWSKI (PHOTO BY VINCE BUTTS)
The NCAA men’s Final Four is set. Villanova and Kansas in the first game, and North Carolina against Duke in the nightcap. It all happens Saturday evening, April 2, from New Orleans, on cable channel TBS.
Duke, of course, is coached by Mike Krzyzewski, or “Coach K” for short. The legendary coach announced this would be his final season coaching Duke after 42 years at the helm and five national championships.
On March 1, Duke visited Pitt at the Petersen Events Center and won, 86-56. Before the game, Pitt’s coach, Jeff Capel, gave his former coach a steel sculpture of a fist; the four fingers and the thumb signaling the five pillars of Krzyzewski’s pillars of success.
Capel played at Duke under Krzyzewski from 1993-97, and was an assistant coach for Krzyzewski from 2011-18.
The winners of the two Final Four games will meet for all the marbles, the national title, Monday, April 4, at 9 p.m.
– Rob Taylor Jr.