The Michigan State Spartans could not stop history on Tuesday night, as Mike Krzyzewski led Duke to the 903rd win of his coaching career with a 74-69 victory, passing Bobby Knight to become the NCAA's Division I all-time winningest coach.
With 20 points on 8-10 shooting, sophomore guard Keith Appling fueled a late rally and was the star of the night for the Spartans. Appling scored Michigan State's final nine points and helped cut what was a 20-point second half deficit all the way down to 74-69 with 15 seconds in regulation. But it was too late, as Draymond Green missed a late three pointer and the Spartans dropped to 0-2 on the season as this followed a loss on Nov. 11 to North Carolina.
Michigan State had no answer for Duke's duo of Andre Dawkins and Seth Curry. Dawkins poured in 26 points, second most in his collegiate career, thanks to a 6-10 night on three-pointers. And Curry had a fabulous all-around game with 19 points, five rebounds, three assists, and five steals, terrorizing the Spartans equally on both ends of the court.
A close game throughout the entire first half, the Spartans even grabbed a 35-34 lead when Green opened the second half with a layup. But after that the Blue Devils responded with a 27-6 run to take a 61-41 lead, with forward Ryan Kelly coming off the bench to score nine points during that decisive run.
Krzyzewski, who started coaching in 1975 at Army before moving on to Duke in 1980, improved to 903-283 in his storied college coaching career, eclipsing the record set by Knight, whose coaching career also started at Army. Knight helped broadcast the game on ESPN.