How Blue is Duke Devil Blood?

Mike Krzyzweski, aka Coach K, has announced he will retire in 2022 after 42 seasons as head coach of Duke Blue Devils men’s basketball team.

His teams have won five national championships and have reached the Final Four 12 times. Because of this, Duke has been referred to as one of college basketball “blueblood” programs.

But is it really a blueblood?

And what is a blueblood program, anyway?

I would suggest a blueblood program has a record of consistent success going back generations; even when there are dips, the program recovers and returns to prominence before long.

In other words, the program is much richer than the achievements of just one coach.

That’s why I’m not sure about Duke.

So I looked at all nine teams that have won three or more national championships (since the NCAA Tournament began in 1939). Let’s call them all “bluebloods” for the sake of argument. Then I took out the winningest coach of each program.

UCLA without John Wooden: 11 national championships go to 1; the program’s overall .688 winning percentage* falls to .641.

Kentucky without Adolph Rupp: 8 go to 4; .762 winning percentage falls to .734.

North Carolina without Dean Smith: 6 national championships go to 4; .735 falls to .711.

Indiana without Bob Knight: 5 championships to 2, .634 to .592.