Updated 11:35 p.m.

NEW YORK – Two hard-driving, enormously successful coaches shared a tender moment Tuesday night after Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski became the winningest coach in Division I men’s basketball.

Moments after career win number 903, Krzyzewski embraced Bob Knight, who coached him at Army and won 902 games in his career. No. 6-ranked Duke had just defeated Michigan State 74-69 at Madison Square Garden with Knight sitting in the ESPN color analyst’s chair.

Both men got choked up as Krzyzewski thanked Knight.

DURHAM - Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski said today that he believes the Penn State sex abuse scandal was “the worst thing,” and that those who question coach Joe Paterno’s failure to act should remember that how social issues are handled has changed dramatically in Paterno’s lifetime.

“One thing you have to understand is that Coach Paterno is 84 years old,” Krzyzewski said. “I’m not saying that for an excuse or whatever. The cultures that he’s been involved in both football wise and socially have been [through] immense changes. And how social issues are handled in those generations are quite different. Quite different. And I think that has something to do with the situation.”

Paterno was fired last week after allegations of sexual abuse of young boys were brought against one of Penn State’s longtime former assistant coaches, Jerry Sandusky. According to reports, Paterno was told about an incident regarding Sandusky and reported it to his superiors at Penn State but didn’t contact police.

Updated 8:03 p.m.

DURHAM – After completing the ESPNU interview Saturday, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski grinned at the players who were still waiting for him on the floor that bears his name at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Krzyzewski had just tied his mentor, Bob Knight, atop the Division I career men’s basketball coaching list as the No. 6-ranked Blue Devils breezed to a 96-55 defeat of Presbyterian.

Duke’s players weren’t about to leave the floor without their coach, so they waited and congratulated him as a group.

DURHAM – Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski came out in favor of more ACC expansion Wednesday but cautioned against splitting up an expanded ACC too much.

“It seems to me that if you’re going to go to 14 [schools], you should go to 16,” Krzyzewski said at his preseason-opening news conference. “And anytime I hear the word ‘pod,’ it makes me vomit.”

Last month the ACC announced it is adding Pittsburgh and Syracuse from the Big East, although their date of entry has not yet been declared. That would bring conference membership to 14 schools.

DURHAM – For the last several seasons under coach Mike Krzyzewski, Duke has used a perimeter-first formula to build an elite basketball program.

But personnel losses from last season leave Duke with 6-foot-11 junior Ryan Kelly and 6-10 junior Mason Plumlee as two of its three returning starters from a team that went 32-5 and lost in the West Regional semifinals of the NCAA tournament.

The Blue Devils’lone senior is 6-10 Miles Plumlee, one of three Plumlee brothers on the team. So for the first time in recent memory, Duke’s focus is shifting away from the perimeter and toward veterans who play closer to the basket.

One of the goals of Duke’s four-game exhibition trip to China and Dubai earlier this month was to figure out which players could establish themselves in leading roles after the departures of Nolan Smith, Kyle Singler and Kyrie Irving.

Junior Seth Curry, a Charlotte Christian graduate who has taken over the point guard duties for Smith and Irving, stepped forward into one of those roles.

Curry averaged 13.5 points per game as Duke won three games against the Chinese Olympic Team and a fourth over the United Arab Emirates National Team.

DURHAM – Mike Krzyzewski knows little about what kind of system Duke will run next basketball season.

Instead, the Blue Devils’ coach will wait until after the team’s trip to play exhibition games in China and Dubai in August to form a rotation and a system of play after losing first-team All-ACC seniors Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler from last season’s team.

“We have so many new guys,” Krzyzewski said Wednesday during a media opportunity at the beginning of his yearly K Academy fantasy camp.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Duke freshman point guard Kyrie Irving said late Thursday night that he doesn’t know whether he will return to the Blue Devils next season.

Irving is projected as one of the top picks in the NBA draft after a season that was interrupted for 3 ½ months because of an injury to his right big toe.

“Right now, I’m thinking about next year,” he said shortly after the game. “I’m not definitely guaranteeing I’m coming back. I’ll sit down with the coaching staff after the NCAA tournament and go from there.”

ANAHEIM, Calif. - It’s an occurrence as certain as death, taxes and overzealous Duke students screaming so loud at Cameron Indoor Stadium that their spit lands on the back of the necks of reporters seated on press row.

Duke is deep in the NCAA tournament. And somebody in the media is trying to tie coach Mike Krzyzewski to an NBA job.

According to ESPN.com, Colin Cowherd discussed today on his show whether Krzyzewski should replace Phil Jackson as the Lakers’ coach. But Krzyzewski was asked about coaching in the NBA on Wednesday.