Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski is now the winningest basketball coach in Division I history, surpassing Pat Summitt

Mike Krzyzewski’s name has been synonymous with winning at Duke for a long time. He’s got 12 Final Four berths, five national championships, three Olympic gold medals and 14 ACC tournament titles.

After a second-round win in the NCAA tournament against Rhode Island on Saturday, he now has 1,099 through his career. That surpasses the late Pat Summitt for most wins all time for a Division I basketball coach. In his postgame interview he had some nice words about Summitt, and said he didn’t even know about the record until the night before the game.

Coach K it doesn’t look like he’s ready to call it quits immediately. Although he’s had a few health concerns in recent years, he’s still chugging at the age of 71. His next-closest men’s Division I challenger in Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, who has 923 wins. When Coach K does retire, there’s one coach in particular who should take over the mantle in short order.

UConn’s Geno Auriemma. who may be about 80 wins behind K all-time, but gains on him every year because his Huskies lose fewer games per year than Duke does en route to what seems like an automatic national title. Whenever Coach K does retire, it shouldn’t take long for Auriemma to overtake him.

Coach K does actually trail Division II McKendree University’s Harry Statham on the all-time wins list for any college basketball coach, but he’ll likely pass Statham next season. Statham (who has amassed 1,122 wins over his career) was unceremoniously let go just a week ago after 50 years.

“The release that came out, from the school, implied I resigned or retired. That was not the case. I am getting phone calls and email from friends who thought I retired,” said Statham.

The ‘winning-est’ head basketball coach for any four-year college, now benched, posted on social media to make things crystal clear to the McKendree University community.

”I said I did not want to retire and didn’t want to retire. I said I wasn’t a quitter, wanted to leave on a winning note or a winning season,” added Statham.

For now, Coach K stands alone as the dean of DI coaches. It’s an honor that is well-deserved.