Run the numbers, calculate the age progressions and what you find is one inescapable ramification regarding Duke's hiring of Kevin White as its new athletic director on Saturday.

Barring something out of the royal-blue yonder, White will be the person in the command chair when the school faces the daunting prospect of basketball life after Mike Krzyzewski's retirement.

Hopefully, that event will not take place for years. Krzyzewski, through almost three decades at Duke, has been a marvel of excellence. Even most North Carolina fans -- begrudgingly or not -- have to acknowledge that fact.

But no one -- not John Wooden, not Dean Smith and eventually not even Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno -- coaches forever.

While Krzyzewski, who attended Saturday's announcement, may possess the body and competitive edge of a frisky 40-something, the fact doesn't change that he's cracked 60. He turned 61 on Feb. 13 and is on the verge of a demanding personal calendar. The period will include coaching the United States team in the Summer Olympics and then returning in relatively short order to prepare an 2008-09 Duke team that still could go off as the preseason favorite to win the ACC.

Not only that, but Krzyzewski will have to tackle the 2008-09 season without his long-time right-hand man, Johnny Dawkins, who left recently to take over the head coaching post at Stanford.

While no one outside his family and coaching circle can predict with any confidence exactly how long Krzyzewski will work, Duke has to see anything beyond the 2013-14 season as bonus time.

The 57-year-old White is a good bet to be around for at least 10 seasons, if you use previous Duke AD tenures as a general guideline. Obviously, Krzyzewski has more than earned the right to essentially anoint his successor. But that's assuming Krzyzewski can settle on one specific candidate. There's at least some chance he could hand the resident AD at the time a list, which could include Dawkins, current Notre Dame coach and one-time Duke aide Mike Brey, present assistants Chris Collins, Steve Wojciechowski and Nate James and perhaps even a long shot, say, Bill King, for instance.

Just for the record, White hired Brey to the Notre Dame job. Brey has not emerged as another Captain K, but Brey's teams did win 49 games during the past two seasons and have had five 20-win seasons with the Irish.

Signing Brey was a good move, for which White deserves all due credit. But at Notre Dame, football is to athletics what basketball is to Duke. On that front, White made some decisions that at the very least have to be questioned.

He hired George O'Leary from Georgia Tech. Upon resume review, that call was good for -- what? -- all of two or three weeks. Next up was North Carolina native Ty Willingham, who won enough for a while, then slipped and was forced out too fast, probably by alumni powers beyond White's control. Next up was Charlie Weis, who is still around and working on a long-term contract that could turn out to be a one-more-season contract if the Irish again post a Duke-like football record.

White, no doubt, will face adjustments, one of which may be having to deal with a new boss.

Richard Brodhead, Duke's president since 2004, is the same age as Krzyzewski, but Brodhead has been forced to deal with an onslaught of calamity that largely resonated from the well-documented men's lacrosse episode in March 2006. It's just a guess, but don't bet on Brodhead being in command long enough to see out White's athletic directorship.

That's just an earmark of modern collegiate administrative duties. In the long run -- shoot, the short run -- it really makes no difference whether you're talking about Notre Dame football, Duke basketball or the external influences within and apart from athletics, it all comes down to making the smartest possible decisions.

White has been around long enough to understand those operating principles. His salary, no doubt, is enviable, although it must be pointed out that Duke, of all schools, still isn't comfortable enough in its own skin to make that sort of thing a matter of public transparency, which isn't asking a heck of a lot by the way. His contract is likely for five or more years -- what say you about that, Duke?

But on balance, White has the look and feel of a smooth fit. He should be good for the school, his new conference and the many successful programs he inherits. In exchange for challenges, there are opportunities. That's where he starts.