SI Sportsman of the Year: Mike Krzyzewski and Pat Summit Deserve All Recognition

Sports Illustrated has recognized two of the most famous and well-known college basketball coaches of all-time as the Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year.

Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and Tennessee’s Pat Summitt were both chosen for a number of reasons beyond the obvious fact that they lead their respective genders in career coaching victories. Coach K has 907 wins during his tenure and Summit has 1,075, both easily leading Division I and will be for the foreseeable future.

Coach K is being honored because he won a national title in 2010 with the Blue Devils along with gold medals as the coach of the U.S. national team in the 2008 Olympics and 2010 World Championships.

He also beat Michigan State in Madison Square Garden earlier this season to pass Bob Knight for career D-I victories and it is something that surely must be recognized.

Summit has changed the way the nation perceives women’s basketball since her start with the Lady Volunteers 38 years ago and has turned it from a game no one took seriously to a legitimate sport that people care about and watch on national television.

She also is now preparing to battle a whole new issue. She announced she was diagnosed with early-onset dementia this year and did not let it slow her down. She is coaching this year while starting a foundation to raise funds and awareness for Alzheimer’s, a crippling disease that causes memory loss for which no cure has been found.

It’s wonderful that SI was able to choose two very worthy candidates for their awards and it makes sense that they picked the top coaches in the sport, regardless of gender, to be honored.

These coaches have been around nearly four decades now and won’t be here forever, so let us cherish their accomplishments and appreciate what they are doing in the sport of college basketball while they are healthy and still breaking new ground.