What Mike Krzyzewski said before Duke-St. John’s NCAA Tournament clash

With the Duke basketball team in the Sweet 16 as they go against St. John’s on Friday night, there’s no denying the amount of pedigree from both sides. While the Duke basketball team awaits injury updates ahead of the St. John’s matchup, one person who gave their preview of the contest was former head coach Mike Krzyzewski.

The resume of Krzyzewski speaks for itself as he led the Blue Devils to five national championships, 15 conference championships, and more from 1980 until his retirement in 2022.

With Jon Scheyer succeeding him, Krzyzewski would speak on “The Pat McAfee Show” about how huge it would be for the program to get back Patrick Ngongba and Caleb Foster, especially the former, emphasizing their big-man rotation.

“That’s why it’s important for our team, Duke, to get Ngongba back, and he’ll be playing. And that…if you have multiple bigs, you can have a fresh big in there all the time, and your rotation is important,” Krzyzewski said. “I think when we hit a few speed bumps, we weren’t playing the first couple games like we were when we’re healthy. We’re going to get that back, because I think Pat will play tonight. I also…I’m pretty sure that Caleb Foster will get minutes tonight, so that’ll be good. But the big guys are huge.”

"We're getting healthier now..

I'm pretty sure that Caleb Foster will get minutes tonight and that will be good" ~ Coach K #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/fE8vlAgc0K

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 27, 2026

It won’t be an easy challenge as Duke goes up against head coach Rick Pitino and St. John’s, who have had a good tournament thus far in beating Northern Iowa and Kansas to get to the Sweet Sixteen. Not to mention the fact that they beat UConn in the Big East final, despite it not being in the March Madness tourney.

At any rate, the Blue Devils look to advance past the Red Storm and make the Elite Eight, which would be the second straight year if done.

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