Over the past seven years, one of Krzyzewski's most important partnerships has been with James.
Collins joined Krzyzewski's staff in 2000 and was promoted to associate head coach in 2008.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski will remind his players of those past performances to a point.
"I mean, me saying 'spectacular' or whatever doesn't do his performance justice, " Krzyzewski said.
"I think the hero for us this game was Thornton, " coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
The win was a nice present for Krzyzewski, who was celebrating his 66th birthday.
Krzyzewski says during the past few years, he tweaked the way he approaches preparing for the tournament.
The big edge Krzyzewski has over his rivals is he became a head coach at 28 in 1975.
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The loss prevented Krzyzewski for now from tying John Wooden's record of 12 Final Four appearances.
"Seth's performance in the first half, he just the best player on the court, " coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
Krzyzewski, college basketball's all-time winningest coach, is widely credited with reviving USA Basketball after its slump in the mid-2000s.
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Krzyzewski extended his all-time lead with his 80th career victory in the tournament that he has won four times.
"These two guys really came through for us, " Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
It left Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski joking to reporters that he was interested to read how they'd describe Kelly's big night.
Kidd also spoke with USA Basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski last year about getting involved on the coaching side of the organization.
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Krzyzewski is already urging ACC officials to start contemplating what they need to do to avoid other leagues from poaching ACC schools.
"One of the things during this time of the year ... is that if you lose, it's final, " coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
But I'm doing games featuring hall of fame coaches Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski.
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After James checked out of the game, he celebrated by dousing Krzyzewski with water, then climbed to his spot on the podium.
"We've got another five days to live here, " coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
Don't tell Mike Krzyzewski that Duke is college basketball's New York Yankees.
Once Krzyzewski came aboard, James was instrumental in the national team's success.
"I thought he was playing like he had three fouls, " Krzyzewski said.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski burned a timeout, and Louisville forward Chane Behanan held up four fingers to the partisans behind the Louisville bench.
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The good friends said goodbye and Boeheim, the second-winningest coach in Division I history behind only Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, walked to the locker room.
"We expected them to be terrific, and we have to match terrific, and then you have a terrific game, " Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
"This is a difficult tournament, " said Boeheim, fourth all-time with 50 tournament wins, behind only Mike Krzyzewski (81), Dean Smith (65) and Roy Williams (60).
Plumlee and Kelly, each with four fouls, returned to the game as Krzyzewski clearly wanted his best players in there to try and put away Creighton.
"The thing (the win) does for us is it gives us a chance over the next few weeks to transition to the NCAA tournament, " Krzyzewski said.
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