About 40 years ago, a young coach named Mike Krzyzewski got his first win as the coach of the Army Black Knights. Now, his Duke Blue Devils took down the St. John's Red Storm by a score of 77-68 at Madison Square Garden. It was a huge victory for Duke and Krzyzewski, as the man known as Coach K became the first coach in NCAA Division I history to win 1000 games.

As for St John’s, they did not play terrible. The Red Storm did a lot right in this game but they could not deliver the knockout blow to deny Coach K his 1000th career win.

St John’s came into the Garden ready to play, led by sophomore guard Rysheed Jordan. In the first half, Jordan was St John’s anchor on the transition and on the set offense, leading St John’s with 16 points on 6-for-9 shooting at halftime.

The downside for St John’s was their many early turnovers and forced shots. St John's was still able to feed off the crowd by attacking the basket and finishing layups over Jahlil Okafor and Amile Jefferson, with D’Angelo Harrison then finished off an impressive first half for the Red Storm as he hit a three point shot just before the buzzer.

In the first half, Duke went up by as many as 8 points because of St. John's failure to protect the ball. The bad news for Duke was Okafor was being well guarded underneath the basket and couldn’t get much going. As a team Duke shot 44% from all areas of the floor, 33% from 3-point range, and 50% from the foul line in the first half. Okafor lead all Duke players with 10 points in the first half, but they were down 43-39 at the break.

St John’s came into the second half strong and continued to take advantage of the poor defense by the Blue Devils, takingcare of the ball more and limiting turnovers. The Red Storm led by as many as nine points in the second half but the Duke offense and zone defense became to much for the Johnnies to handle, with Duke going on a 9-0 run to take control of the game.

Duke then got the ball to Tyus Jones as he was fouled by Jordan shooting a three and then hit a big shot from the corner with 1:15 remaining, with that shot ending any chance the Red Storm had of coming back.

Even if Coach K never wins another game again he will still go down as the best ever.

Stats: Tyus Jones who finished the game with 22 points on 5/11 shooting led Duke. Jahlil Okafor also contributed for Duke with 17 points and an impressive 10 rebounds. Sir’Dominic Pointer led St John’s with 21 points on 9/17 shooting.

Next Games:

Duke @ Notre Dame on 1/28/15

St John’s @ Creighton on 1/28/15