The Duke Vs. North Carolina March Madness Matchup By The Numbers

For the first time in the history of their storied rivalry, college basketball titans Duke and North Carolina will clash in the NCAA Tournament’s Final Four. Adding to the stakes: the spectacle of the final stand for Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski, the NCAA’s winningest coach, who has led the Blue Devils since 1980. The 75-year-old is retiring after more than four decades as a college coach, a tenure that is second only to Jim Boeheim’s 46 years as head coach for the Syracuse Orange.

During his 42 seasons in Durham, “Coach K” has rewritten college basketball’s history books, recording the most wins, most NCAA Tournament wins and most Final Four appearances of all time, while lifting Duke into perhaps the country’s preeminent college basketball powerhouse. Were he to cut down the nets on Monday night, it would mean a sixth national championship, more than 30 years after his first triumph in 1991.

His retirement comes just one season after another coaching legend, North Carolina’s Roy Williams, who stepped down last offseason, potentially signaling a curtain call for the old guard of coaching icons who have dominated the sport over the past four decades.

Here’s a look at the faceoff – and the legacy – by the numbers.

5: The number of times Coach K has led Duke to a national championship, with wins during the NCAA’s March Madness tournaments in 1991, 1992, 2001, 2010 and 2015.

10: The NCAA record for championship wins, which belongs to UCLA’s John Wooden, who coached UCLA from 1948-1975.

13: The number of times Coach K has led a team to the Final Four, the most in NCAA history by a single coach. UNC has made the trip 14 times during the same span under four different coaches.

36: Coach K holds the record for the most number of March Madness trips by one coach.

101: Number of NCAA Tournament wins for a Coach K team, also an NCAA record. Wooden’s dominance at UCLA came when the tournament was a much smaller affair.

1,202: Total number of career wins for Coach K, including 73 during his five-year tenure as the head coach of Army.

1,569: The total number of games coached by Krzyzewski, 1,437 of those at Duke.

79%: Coach K’s win percentage at Duke, versus 77% during his entire career.

51%: His win rate against UNC, where his record stands at 50 wins and 47 losses. The two programs have split 11 national championships between them, 10 of those during Coach K years..

$87 million: Coach K’s earnings between 2001 and 2020, according to tax returns obtained by Sportico, likely putting his career earnings above $100 million, making him the highest paid coach in NCAA history.

$9.7 million: His widely reported compensation for this final season.

$2.25 million: The salary for North Carolina’s first-year head coach Hubert Davis, including half a million in bonuses he has accumulated during the team’s Final Four run.

$15 million: The high end of a reported salary range offered to Krzyzewski in 2010 by then-New Jersey Nets’ owner Mikhail Prokhorov, which he turned down.

$12 million: Phil Jackson’s salary to coach the Los Angeles Lakers in 2010. NBA stalwart Gregg Popovich was reported to be making around $11 million in 2019, according to ESPN reports.

$308: The cheapest ticket price on Ticketmaster for Saturday’s Final Four matchup on secondary markets, as of time of writing.

$66,000: The top end of pricing for seats close to the court. According to Ticket Club, prices rose more than 50 percent after UNC defeated Saint Peter’s last Sunday to set up Saturday’s marquee matchup.

$155: The amount of money someone would win on a $100 bet for Duke to win the national championship. The Blue Devils have the lowest odds of any of the four teams remaining, and are clear -190 favorites in their game against North Carolina.

$770 million: The average yearly payout from CBS and Turner to the NCAA for the rights to broadcast the NCAA Tournament this year. An eight-year extension agreed to in 2016 will increase the annual fee to $1.1B starting in 2025.

$457,143: Amount Duke and UNC would each collect from this year’s tournament runs, assuming a $6.4 million bonus from the NCAA is split equally among the 14 schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The NCAA pays each of its conferences represented this year $338,887 per tournament game appearance, with the payments recurring for the next six seasons.