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Watching 68 teams in a March Madness bracket can be quite overwhelming, especially for those participating in the tournament.
However, former Duke player Jay Bilas said his legendary former head coach Mike Krzyzewski had a brilliant way of cutting things down to take some pressure off the Blue Devils.
“I played for Coach K at Duke and in 1986, my senior year, it was the second year of the 64-team bracket,” Bilas told PK Press Club Digital in a recent interview. “And he split the tournament into a four-team tournament the first weekend. He talked about the opposing team in our group, the 32 teams opposing our team and said, ‘Look at all these teams over there,’ and started talking about how good some of them were. the championship.’
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Head coach Mike Krzyzewski of the Duke Blue Devils reacts in the first half of the game against the North Carolina Tar Heels in the semifinal round of the 2022 NCAA men’s basketball tournament at Caesars Superdome on April 2, 2022 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
“And so he gave us a bracket. It was a four-team bracket, and we were playing Greensboro in the first and second rounds. I think he called it the Greensboro Invitational and said, ‘That’s all we have to worry about.’ And we’re like, “Damn, we can deal with this.” » He made things easier. And then the second week, same thing. We played at the Meadowlands – Meadowlands Invitational. We played DePaul, and then David Robinson and Navy were on the other side. So we were only dealing with a four-team tournament. Next, we come to the Final Four, a four-team tournament. And it really made things a lot easier. »
Now, like all of us, Bilas is watching the tournament as a fan. And this year, he’ll enjoy it with ice-cold Garage Beer, founded by Travis and Jason Kelce.
Jay Bilas will enjoy March Madness with Garage Beer. (Garage beer)
“I like beer and I like garages,” Bilas joked, adding that the Kelce brothers are one of the main reasons he wanted to be the drink’s spokesperson this March Madness. “I probably shouldn’t talk about how much I love beer, but I love beer and I love Garage Beer. And there’s nothing like tournament time, and those two things go really well together. I try to avoid it when I’m on the air, but I’m like everyone else: When there’s a good match, I like to open one.”
And while there will likely be several Garage Beers throughout the tournament, there’s a good chance that Bilas, a self-proclaimed March Madness “nerd,” will be able to remember just about everything about this tournament.
However, due to Coach K’s practice, this encyclopedia in Bilas’s brain doesn’t have many pages about 1986.
“I can tell you about matches that happened in any tournament and remember them. I don’t remember what happened in that 1986 tournament,” Bilas said. “Because all I cared about was what we did. I mean, it’s truly remarkable. I don’t really remember anything else because of the way Coach K presented it to us and the way we approached it. And I know a lot of teams are doing that now, and I, at least for me, thought it was extraordinarily helpful to us.”
Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski shouts during the first half of a college basketball game against Cal State Fullerton in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Friday, March 18, 2022, in Greenville, South Carolina. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
The Blue Devils are the No. 1 seed this year and are aiming for their first title since 2015.
