Krzyzewski, Duke on verge of record-breaking year

Duke can give Mike Krzyzewski one impressive record at the start of this season - and an even more important one at the end.

Virtually all of the focus on the Blue Devils early in the season will center around Krzyzewski's inevitable march toward Bob Knight's record for Division I men's coaching victories.

But there's another mark Krzyzewski undoubtedly wants to make in college basketball history. His next appearance in the Final Four will be his 12th, and that would tie John Wooden for the most in a career.

It'll be bigger news if Krzyzewski doesn't surpass Knight before December - he should have his 903rd victory by Thanksgiving - and his 32nd Duke team appears capable of bringing him even with Wooden and delivering his second Final Four trip in three years.

''We've been part of a lot of big games for him, and it's always exciting,'' said forward Miles Plumlee, the team's lone senior. ''It's a lot of fun to play with that pressure for that game.''

Krzyzewski enters his 37th season as a head coach with a career record of 900-284, two victories shy of matching Knight - his mentor and college coach at Army - atop the list. Krzyzewski can match his coach and mentor Nov. 12 at home against Presbyterian and pass him three nights later against Michigan State at Madison Square Garden.

He has acknowledged that setting the record is all but a foregone conclusion for a Duke program that has racked up 15 straight seasons of at least 20 wins, and has often said it's special that the first two men in Division I to reach 900 wins are a coach and his point guard - Krzyzewski ran the point for Knight's Army teams in the late 1960s.

Of more pressing concern is meshing five promising freshmen - including three McDonald's All-Americans - into a team that lost its top three scorers to the NBA.

Krzyzewski hopes he has the right mix to replace last year's ACC player of the year (guard Nolan Smith), the Most Outstanding Player of the 2010 Final Four (forward Kyle Singler) and the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft (guard Kyrie Irving). Though Irving played just 11 games during his lone, injury-shorted season at Duke, those three combined for more than half of the Blue Devils' 2,993 points last season.

So, Krzyzewski is tweaking the way his team plays yet again to take advantage of a roster that includes four players who are 6-foot-10 or taller - including three from the same family.

One thing he said he learned during the team's two-week exhibition tour of China and Dubai is that ''our big guys are good.''

''The Plumlees, the two older ones (Miles and junior Mason) are just better basketball players, and so is (6-11 forward) Ryan Kelly,'' Krzyzewski said. ''How we incorporate our (big men) into what we're doing, both offensively and defensively, is a change from the last couple of years. And so there (are) some habits to break as far as how we score, how we defend.''

The coach admits this year's players, by and large, don't have quite the ability to blow past defenders and create their own shots, though highly touted freshman Austin Rivers has the potential to develop it. But while he won't call these Blue Devils ''an inside-out team,'' he wants them to depend on each other to generate scoring opportunities.

''We're not a real `breakdown' team. ... Nolan, Kyrie, those guys could really break you down and force a lot of help-and-recover situations'' for defenses, he said. ''Probably the best guy who really does that is Austin. But by being a freshman, he's still learning what that means - a breakdown guy that forces help-and-recover needs to be a really good passer too, and he's been a scorer his whole life. And so we need to help each other get shots more so than the last couple of years.''

Rivers, the son of Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers, is the Blue Devils' most highly regarded recruit in the backcourt since - well, since Irving last year. But that's where the similarities between them seem to end.

While Irving was known for his quick first step and was a natural point guard, Rivers is more of a scoring threat - he finished his prep career as the second-leading scorer in Central Florida high school history with 2,957 points - who likely won't be asked to run the show.

''I've been waiting for this for a lot of years now ... waiting to play college basketball,'' Rivers said. ''And now that I'm here at Duke, great players and a great coach and our schedule, I'm very excited to play.''