Krzyzewski's golden voyage nears end

BEIJING -- Mike Krzyzewski hasn't always slept soundly during the Beijing Olympics.

Often, he gets out of bed late at night and sits down at the desk. With the Beijing financial district spread out from his hotel window, he jots down strategy or practice preparation. Do I have everything covered, he wonders?

Krzyzewski wonders because, even with 803 college basketball victories in 33 years of basketball on his curriculum vitae, he's covering new terrain.

He was picked to coach a national team of NBA stars over a three-year period to revamp the USA Basketball program, which had failed in Athens in 2004. All he had to do to make it a successful mission for his country was bring home gold in the 2008 Beijing Games.

Krzyzewski is a tad keyed up at the moment.

"This is very unique," he said. "When you're coaching these guys -- it's not that you don't do it with your own college or pro teams -- you need to be on top of your game all the time. Because they deserve that."

The Americans (7-0), who beat Argentina 101-81 on Friday, will face Spain (6-1) at the Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium at 2:30 a.m. EDT Sunday to see if they can finish what they started in 2006.

Krzyzewski is so immersed his wife said she doesn't recognize him.

Mickie Krzyzewski, who trekked to China with five grandchildren, three daughters and three sons-in-law, said her husband has been a different person during this trip to Beijing, at the end of that mission. Coaching rules he's not used to using, with players who are, technically, not his, she said he's "in a constant state of preparation and never feels like he's completely prepared."

"I feel like we've been through the wars together for years and whatever we're facing, whether it's a tough year with the team or the NCAA Tournament or whatever, I recognize him and I know where he's at," Mickie Krzyzewski said. "He is different for this. I think he feels so much responsibility that it goes beyond a tournament or winning a game or even a gold medal. I have had to stand back and try to get a grip on what's going on."

Mike Krzyzewski is at the tail end of this project that officially began when he was named U.S. head coach in October 2005.

Before U.S. senior men's national director Jerry Colangelo tabbed him on the advice of U.S. Olympians and Olympic coaches of years past, Krzyzewski thought he'd never get a chance to lead an Olympic team. He served as an assistant to Chuck Daly with the Dream Team in 1992, thinking it would be his lone Olympic experience.

The former U.S. Army captain had longed for the chance but said it wouldn't be a hole in either his resume or his heart should he not. Then Colangelo offered it to him, and, with both of his surgically repaired hips, Krzyzewski jumped.

"There is a similarity to when he was a young coach," Mickie Krzyzewski said of Mike Krzyzewski's tunnel vision, urgency and nervousness here in Beijing.

"But I don't think he has ever felt this sense of responsibility even then. He feels he's carrying an amazing load."

Respect earned

Krzyzewski's real journey began the afternoon of an early U.S. practice in Las Vegas preparing for the 2006 World Championships.

On that day, with the media looking in, Krzyzewski called Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James over to his side, spoke in his ear about some point on defense, then said, "Tuck in your shirt."

Smiling, James did as he was instructed.

The question until that moment was whether Krzyzewski's act, forceful and intense during his day job at Duke, would fly with NBA players. But national team members such as Chauncey Billups and former UNC star Antawn Jamison said Krzyzewski didn't force his method on the team. He observed a lot that first summer, they said.