Let’s face it, no one expected the Army men’s basketball team to beat Duke at Christl Arena at West Point on Tuesday night.
They didn’t, losing to the Blue Devils, 114-59, before a sellout Veterans Day crowd of 5,326 that gathered as much to see a rare visit to West Point by a college blue blood that is currently ranked fourth in the nation as to honor Mike Krzyzewski, the former Army player and coach and long-time coach at Duke, with a permanent banner in the arena recognizing his many achievements.
Coach “K” was a point guard for Army from 1966 to 1970 and returned in 1975 to coach the Black Knights for five seasons. He then went on to Duke, where he coached the Blue Devils to five NCAA championships and finished his College Basketball Hall of Fame coaching career with 1,202 victories, the most in history.
“It was an unbelievable atmosphere,” said third-year Army coach Kevin Kuwik. “Not only was today special for our program, it was special for the West Point community, for our alumni base, for The Long Grey Line. That was like 10-times Army-Navy in there today. It is awesome for the players, the fans and people in our community. When you serve in the army, stationed at West Point, it is not glamourous and not sexy, it is selfless service. They deserve stuff like that today.
“It was a spectacular day and spectacular evening and something that our guys will not forget for the rest of their lives. For everyone to see that banner and know there is a connection with the greatest coach ever and our program is awesome.”
Duke made the trip an experience also. Scheyer explained after the game that, especially on Veterans Day, he thought it was extremely important to connect Coach K’s relationship and experiences with West Point and the role the academy has played in the history of the country.
“This was a big-time honor for our program,” said Scheyer. “Those cadets are doing something way more important that we are in serving our country and the commitment they’ve made. For us to do this on Veterans Day was incredibly meaningful. To share this with Coach K and our players, who don’t get a lot of time to be around him, and it was very meaningful to me.”
Scheyer said that Duke’s athletic department knew they had to make the trip to West Point more than just another away game for the Blue Devils players and staff.
“Part of us being here was just to show our gratitude,” he said. “Yesterday, we had an amazing day. We practiced here but then we toured West Point. I’m a history major, so I know some, but I did not nearly know all the history that is behind West Point. For our players, I think they have tremendous respect for these guys, the commitment they made and the sacrifice they are making. To understand that is being a part of something bigger than yourself. That is the biggest takeaway I have.”
As for the game, Duke, now 3-0, took it to Army, using a powerful inside game and some tidy outside shooting to grab a 49-30 halftime lead and then just kept getting better and better as the second half wound down in route to its 55-point victory. Six Blue Devils finished with double-digit points, including Cameron Boozer (15 points), Dame Sarr (19) and Isaiah Evans (17). Duke made 16 of 37 three-point tries, outscored Army 42-18 in the paint, outrebounded the much-smaller Black Knights 48-37 and just simply controlled the tempo of the contest from its early moments until the final whistle.
With the Black Knights, who are now 1-2, unable to penetrate the key, Army needed to rely on its own three-point shooting to keep up with Duke. But, Army converted just 12 of an eye-popping 49 three-point shots and finished the game shooting only 30.9% in total.
Jackson Furman, Army’s freshman guard, did continue to impress, scoring 20 points against Duke and has 52 points in Army’s three games this season.
“Our guys played their butts off,” said Kuwik. “We played a really, really good team. It probably ultimately went the way you expected it to but no complaints on my end. The guys did everything we asked them to.”
