Tobacco Road

Mike Krzyzewski’s victory this week tying Dean Smith for second on the all times wins list has brought about many debates as who was better as a coach. Of course Carolina fans will give their point of view and Duke fans theirs.

Over looked in all the debate is how lucky we really are to be in an area where the Triangle has to be considered the hotbed of college basketball. How good is college basketball in this area? You have to look no further than Raleigh to find an answer.

N C State is 27th in victories with over 1,500. The Wolfpack history the school has won 62 percent of all their basketball games. How good is basketball in this area? There is total dissatisfaction in Raleigh just winning 62%.

We all live in the past way too much and the Wolfpack nation has been very irrelevant in basketball since the ACC outgrew Reynolds Coliseum. Back in the forties when Reynolds was built the people in Raleigh wanted a palace bigger than the Indoor Stadium at Duke. So they built the exact structure but made it bigger in the end zones.

The early growth of the ACC Reynolds was the biggest place to hold the ACC tournament and State acting like the kid in the neighborhood who had the only goal in his driveway around hardly ever lost there. Finally when someone else got a bigger driveway N C States relevance has faded. Since the ACC Tournament left Raleigh State has only had three dominant seasons 73/74/83. Many would question whether 83 they were dominant.

As a sports fan this is truly a great place to cheer for basketball as unlike most Wolfpack fans I pull for Carolina and Duke all the time except when they play the Wolfpack. You know that Carolina and Duke both would be higher up the total wins column if they didn’t lose so much to each other. Kentucky doesn’t have a team that regularly beats them. Well maybe there are two teams that Kentucky has trouble with and they are Carolina and Duke.

Who cares who the better coach was? Dean Smith is probably more famous for the four corners offense that most folks view as a slow down but in reality the four corners when run by an engineer like Rocky Mount’s Phil Ford was an offensive weapon. Carolina lead the nation in scoring year after year deploying the four Corners. Coach K’s forte is his ability to change on a dime and adjust to what ever line up he has available.

We all live in the me world today but where does the future bring us a new Dean Smith or Coach K. Roy is high up on the all times wins list but most came while he was at Kansas. This society we live in today is not suitable for a thirty five year coach to stay at one spot. Old Roy is on the hot seat now for his record over the last year and a half because it looks more like N C State than Duke’s. Old Roy has won two National Championships in the last five years. That’s the world we live in today. Give me wins now.

Who has the best teams? Who has the best players? Who’s the best coach? The answer is simple as who has the best? We all do! There is no other area in the country where the third best team has won two national titles. Instead of the venom spewed by most over the hate they have for the other we should all realize without each other this would not be known as Tobacco Road.