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CHARLOTTE — Mike Krzyzewski won 899 games sticking to the principles of his mentor, teaching life lessons and basketball lessons that sometimes sounded the same.

To get his 900th, Krzyzewski just winged it.

On a day when few things worked the way he and Bob Knight drew them up, Krzyzewski took his coat off and coached by the seat of his pants. Duke defeated Michigan 73-71 Sunday, and Krzyzewski moved two games behind his old coach.

He'll head west this week looking to take another step toward a fifth NCAA title and any history that might come along with it. There will be no more Michigans, not this year anyway.

The two schools have played before on bigger stages, a fact driven home in the past week by former Wolverines who confused life and basketball and never got around to doing anything historic.

Sunday, with the programs thrust into a national spotlight again, only Krzyzewski remained from the original act. And he had no idea what to do about it.

"We just had to figure it out," he said.

The vagaries of the Michigan 1-3-1 defense are matched only by the vagaries of the Michigan offense, which also comes out of a 1-3-1 scheme sometimes. John Beilein's teams can be a nightmare for coaches incapable of changing their ways.

Krzyzewski had to change his ways while changing his team. With the return from injury of freshman Kyrie Irving, the No. 1 seeded Blue Devils used the weekend to reacquaint themselves with a style of play they hadn't used since early December, when Irving hurt his toe and missed 26 games.

Irving made the winning shot Sunday. He made it against the 1-3-1 zone. He made it on a play Krzyzewski drew up on the sideline. It was nothing like he'd learned at Army, playing point guard all those years ago for Knight.

Those teams played basketball built on the tenets of old-school coaches from old schools. Asked what it meant to win a 900th game, Krzyzewski didn't know how to answer it.

"The 900," he said pausing. "It means we're advancing."

Then he said it means a lot more.

"It's amazing that a coach and his point guard can be the first two coaches in the history of our game to win 900, and that says something about the guy who has 902 and it also says something about the United States Military Academy," he said. "I don't know what that adds up to. You figure it out, but it says something because that just doesn't happen. It doesn't happen."

It's going to happen that Krzyzewski catches his old coach, either in the coming weeks or sometime early next season. If the 900th was any indication, Duke is headed for a few more wins sometime in the coming weeks.

Duke survived Sunday, and Krzyzewski continued to remake his team on the fly. Krzyzewski has rebuilt it over the past few days, and now he'll have to continue to tinker with it in the final days of one of his greatest seasons.

"We now know that Kyrie can play, and he can play extended minutes," Krzyzewski said. "We knew he could play. We didn't know how rusty he would be. He played pretty well, and he kept getting better. He hit the big shot. We know he wants to be there with pressure. That's the big thing going forward."

The big thing going forward will be two-fold. Krzyzewski is chasing a fifth national championship and a 903rd coaching victory. Those are historic numbers that will get bigger in time.

"There will be a lot of guys who will win 900 games eventually," he said. "But to be the first two, and it be the coach and his player do it, is very unique."

He has no idea what the coming days will be like. The win over Michigan seemed to take a lot out of him. He looked relieved to get it behind him, to get past the unique task of playing this Michigan team and to do it from the sideline when so much seemed to be going wrong.

The games will only get bigger now. The pressure will build with each game, with another national title hovering in the distance and the huge milestone between him and history. Sunday, he had to figure out a way to win a game with an arena filled with people booing him, people from two schools he'd been dealing with for much of his career.

He stuck to his principles, took off his coat and did what Knight taught him to do all those years ago. He focused on what was directly in front of him, knowing full well even bigger issues would be facing him later on.

Mike Krzyzewski won his 900th game Sunday and moved on.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com