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SAN ANTONIO -- This is an equation without an answer, and that's what makes it so infuriating. If only you could write, and write with confidence, that John Wooden is greater than Mike Krzyzewski. Or that Mike Krzyzewski is greater than John Wooden.
Pick one. Make an argument. Go with it.
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| Mike Krzyzewski coached Duke to its 10th Final Four in the past 19 seasons before losing to UConn. (AP) |
The problem is, it's just not that easy. For every fact that says Wooden is king of college basketball, there's a fact in favor of Krzyzewski.
Wooden-or-Krzyzewski is built upon a simple foundation: Wooden won 10 national championships at UCLA, most recently in 1975. Krzyzewski has reached 10 Final Fours at Duke, most recently this one, losing Saturday night to Connecticut.
On the surface this debate could end right there, because a national championship trumps a Final Four appearance, and Krzyzewski has just -- just! -- three national championships.
The problem is ...
The problem is, in the past two decades -- Krzyzewski's era -- the Final Four has become college basketball's pinnacle. In today's landscape, a Final Four appearance is as meaningful as winning the NCAA title in Wooden's era.
When Wooden won his first national championship, the 1964 NCAA Tournament field had 25 teams and UCLA had to win four games. Only his 10th title, in 1975, required five victories.
For every one of Krzyzewski's Final Four appearances, the NCAA field had 64 (now 65) teams, and Duke had to win four games. Since the field expanded to 64 in 1985, each region championship game has taken on the feel of an NCAA title game. Winning the national title? That takes two more victories. How can we hold Krzyzewski, who needs six wins for an NCAA title, to a higher standard than Wooden, who needed four?
If you accept that initial premise, that reaching the Final Four is as difficult now as winning the NCAA championship was then, it's tempting to build on top of that a case that Krzyzewski's run has been more startling than Wooden's.
Look at the growth of college basketball in the past 30 years.
In the 12 seasons between Wooden's first and last championship, a grand total of 112 schools appeared in the NCAA Tournament. In the 19 seasons spanning Krzyzewski's run, 250 schools made it. For those who say Coach K's 10 Final Fours are only half as impressive as Wooden's 10 NCAA titles, what about the offsetting fact that Coach K has done it against twice the competition?
Check out some of the programs that never reached the NCAA Tournament during Wooden's run: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia Tech, Gonzaga, LSU, Michigan State, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon, Wisconsin, Xavier. Coach K has had to wade through NCAA fields that included each of them, often many at once.
That spread of basketball programs has meant a spreading of talent. Forget that Wooden's best two players, centers Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton, wouldn't spend a day in college now. The truth is, once Alcindor led the Bruins to Wooden's second title in 1967, Wooden didn't have to recruit again. Great players came to UCLA because, frankly, where else were they to go? If you wanted to be on TV or win a title, you went to UCLA.
Not so today, with every major conference putting most of its games on television and scholarship limits allowing the talent to fan out from Gonzaga to Gainesville, Fla.
The problem is ...
The problem is, there's another mitigating factor -- and this one tips in Wooden's favor. In his era, UCLA could only qualify for the NCAA Tournament by winning the regular-season conference championship. Wooden won 10 titles in 12 years, and in one of those off years, his Bruins didn't even get into the NCAA field. Oregon State represented what is now the Pac-10 in 1966.
In four of Krzyzewski's Final Four seasons, Duke earned its spot in the NCAA Tournament with an at-large bid after losing in the ACC Tournament. That includes this season, and it also includes 1991 -- when Duke won its first NCAA title under Krzyzewski.
Throw in the entire regular season as another elimination event, and Wooden's teams did, in fact, have to win more than just four games to win the NCAA title.
So where does this leave us? Probably in a no-lose situation. You could say Wooden is greater than Krzyzewski, and you could also say Krzyzewski is greater than Wooden.
But maybe the equation we're looking for is right here:
Wooden = Krzyzewski.