LOUISVILLE — Ahead of Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final game pacing the sidelines in Louisville, the Hall of Fame coach was presented with gifts from interim Louisville coach Mike Pegues and former Louisville coach Denny Crum.
Coach K, as Krzyzewski is known, received a Louisville Slugger bat, colored in Duke’s blue and white, and a bottle of Maker’s Mark bourbon with a blue cap and his face etched into it.
Krzyzewski entered the game with 1,186 wins, the most in men’s college basketball history. He’s retiring after the season.
Krzyzewski and Crum and their respective teams faced one another in the 1986 national title game, which Louisville won. Earlier this week, Coach K called Crum “one of the greatest coaches in the history of our sport.”
It’s been disappointing season and a tumultuous week for the Cardinals. On Wednesday, coach Chris Mack and the university agreed to part ways; Mack received $4.8 million as part of the agreement.
In the team’s pregame video, there is usually audio of Mack stating the team’s goal of winning a national title. That audio was replaced ahead of the Duke game, however, and a video of Pegues repeating, “Louisville,” was welcomed with cheers from the crowd.
Pegues and Crum weren’t the only Louisville coaches at the Yum Center, as David Padgett, who coached the Cardinals during the 2017-18 season, also sat courtside.
Hayes Gardner can be reached at hgardner@gannett.com; Twitter: @HayesGardner.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Duke-Louisville: Coach K gets Maker’s Mark as retirement gift