Imagine winning the 2020 NCAA basketball championship. Duke’s Coach K can.
The coronavirus kept the 2020 NCAA basketball tournament from being played but Duke’s Blue Devils had that championship feeling.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski saw to that — “One Shining Moment” and all.
Krzyzewski, appearing this week on “The Old Man & the Three” podcast hosted by former Duke star J.J. Redick, explained the dejection and sadness of his players — and many others in college basketball — when the NCAAs had to be canceled this year. There initially was some hope after the ACC Tournament was canceled that the NCAAs might be held, even a few months later, but that hope quickly was quelled as the pandemic spread.
What to do? Coach K had an idea, which he explained on the podcast.
Feeling that the players on last season’s team needed proper closure, Krzyzewski said he FaceTimed each player on the Saturday of the scheduled NCAA Final Four in Atlanta, asking them to imagine being there and playing in front of 75,000.
And the Blue Devils “won” the semifinal game, he told the players. By 25 points, Coach K said on the podcast.
On the Monday of the national championship game, he said he held a team meeting via Zoom. He said he wore a coat and tie and he gave a pregame speech, Coach K being Coach K.
“Now you’re in the moment that you dreamed of, playing for the national championship,” he said he told his players. “Let’s go out and be national champions.”
Players shown 2020 championship banner
Two hours later, Krzyzewski said, the players were shown a 2020 national championship banner. And, of course, there was “One Shining Moment.”
Coach K, on the podcast, said the players and staff last season put together their own video version at a team meal before leaving campus in the spring. That was played again, just as CBS does each year to cap the NCAA Tournament.
“Those kids deserved that and it was really good for me to do it,” Krzyzewski said on the podcast.
Redick, a former national and ACC player of the year at Duke, is a 14-year NBA veteran who plays for the New Orleans Pelicans. “The Old Man & the Three” podcast with co-host Tommy Alter began in August.
Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils have won five national titles although Redick, despite his collegiate success, noted he was not on a championship team at Duke.
