CHICAGO (AP)—One of Mike Krzyzewski’s fondest memories growing up was paying to watch college basketball doubleheaders at the old Chicago Stadium.
As a teenager, he even remembers seeing Duke face Notre Dame, when college ball was one of the biggest games in his hometown.
“My first exposure to college basketball was right across the street. It’s where I fell in love with college basketball,” Krzyzewski said.
Now decades later, Krzyzewski’s passion for the game is still strong and the program he’s built over 25 years as Duke’s head coach is still one of the best.
He got his 699th career victory—626th at Duke—on Saturday when the Blue Devils routed Valparaiso 93-61.
J.J. Redick scored 26 points, No. 10 Duke built a big lead by forcing 18 first-half turnovers with a staple of Krzyzewski’s teams over the years—tight defense—and the Blue Devils shot 65.5 percent.
Krzyzewski estimated he had between 160 and 200 friends and family in the stands. He could become the sixth active Division I coach to get his 700th victory on Dec. 12 when the Blue Devils play Toledo.
“It’s nice when we get it, we’re not there yet,” he said.
“I’m going to coach for a while, so I’m going to have more than 700 wins. … It will be a milestone for your career and Duke.”
Krzyzewski said his niece told him Friday night he would get 699 on Saturday and then asked him how that made him feel.
“It makes me feel lucky because I can remember coaching at Army where if we got one we felt really good about it,” he said. “So I will appreciate each game and hopefully a number of them will be victories. I still have the passion to do that.”
The Blue Devils (5-0) took control midway through the first half Saturday with a 20-4 run and sailed from there, building a 48-26 halftime lead.
“It was just our defense overall,” Redick said. “Our pressure was good and wee forced some turnovers that way.”
DeMarcus Nelson scored 17 points, Shelden Williams added 16 and Daniel Ewing 14 as the Blue Devils made 36 of 55 field attempts. Dan Oppland paced Valparaiso with 21 points.
“Give us another chance, will you?” Valparaiso coach Homer Drew said. “We’re a much better team than we showed. … Duke’s pressure defense was just wonderful. The first half we had 18 turnovers and that was the difference. We had too many early mistakes and they had too many easy baskets in transition.”
Williams started the first-half spurt with a pair of dunks and Redick capped it with a pair of jumpers, the final one a 3-pointer, to make it 25-14.
Redick, who was 8-of-13 from the field, scored 19 points in the first half. And when he hit a jumper, a 3-pointer and two free throws in a personal 7-0 run, Duke was running away at 41-20. Redick’s two free throws with 10:35 left pushed the margin to 30 in the second half.
Valparaiso (0-4) couldn’t solve the Blue Devils’ swarming defense, turning the ball over 21 times for the game, including 10 by freshman point guard Jarryd Loyd, who was starting in place of injured senior Ali Berdiel.
Duke is now 350-56 against nonconference opponents under Krzyzewski.
