Coach K at ACC Tipoff: The Duke coach on injuries, succession, and the one that got away
For the last time as an active coach, Mike Krzyzewski addressed reporters and took questions at the ACC Tipoff basketball event on Tuesday at the Charlotte Marriott City Center.
Krzyzewski, 74, announced last June he would retire following this season. Associate head coach Jon Scheyer will become Duke’s head coach at that time.
Krzyzewski enters his final season with 1,170 wins, the all-time record for college basketball coaches, and is seeking his sixth NCAA championship at Duke.
Here are the highlights of his comments Tuesday:
AJ Griffin injury update
Duke announced Saturday that freshman forward AJ Griffin suffered a sprained knee during practice last Friday and is sidelined indefinitely.
Krzyzewski offered an update on Tuesday, casting some doubt if Griffin would be ready for the Nov. 9 season-opening game with Kentucky at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
“AJ sprained his knee,” Krzyzewski said. “No surgical stuff. Nothing was torn or broken. Just a matter of rehab. Hopefully it will be weeks. I can’t give you a timeline. He’s off crutches and doing well but has work ahead of him.”
He’s got jokes
The third question of Krzyzewski’s press conference was about this being his last season, he interjected levity.
“You all don’t need to keep reminding me,” he cracked. “I’m 74 but I still have a memory.”
Scheyer’s unique role this season
Scheyer is in the position of still working for Krzyzewski while already knowing he’ll be in the big chair next season.
Asked Scheyer’s situation, Krzyzewski said, “He’s not a coach in waiting. He’s my associate head coach. He’s been with me for eight years. He’s basically going to do the same fantastic job he’s done and then take over and do a fantastic job.”
The one recruit he fretted over not landing
Krzyzewski’s won more than his share of recruiting battles over his 41 years at Duke. He said he no longer spends time thinking about players that got away.
But, early in his Duke career, he did shake his head about one star that got away.
“I did spend a little bit of time on what it would have been like to coach Chris Mullin,” Krzyzewski said. “Because he chose St. John’s over us and Holy Cross.”
That recruitment occurred during Krzyzewski’s first season at Duke, when he led the Blue Devils to a 17-13 record in 1980-81. Mullin signed with St. John’s in 1981 and became an all-American player, leading his team to the 1985 Final Four when he was national player of the year as a senior.
Following a 16-year NBA career, Mullin was selected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011.
Meanwhile, Duke slumped, going 10-17 and 11-17 in Krzyzewski’s second and third seasons. The Blue Devils turned it around in 1983-84 to make their first NCAA tournament under Krzyzewski and have since become one of the sport’s most decorated programs.
But, if Krzyzewski could have landed Mullin, perhaps that would have occurred sooner.
Krzyzewski said he and Mullin have become “great friends.” Krzyzewski finally got to coach Mullin on the 1992 Dream Team at the Barcelona Olympics, when he was an assistant coach.
A special night in New York
The first of many commemorative nights celebrating Krzyzewski’s impact on the game occurred recently when NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, himself a Duke graduate, organized a dinner event in Krzyzewski’s honor in New York.
The focus was on Krzyzewski’s work as head coach of the U.S. National Team, which he led to gold medals in the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics.
About 50 people, including Krzyzewski’s family, former assistant coaches and other staff members from his time coaching the U.S. team attended, like New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau and Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams.
Many of them are former Duke players and assistant coaches, such as Johnny Dawkins, Quinn Snyder, Jeff Capel, Chris Collins, Grant Hill and Steve Wojciechowski, so it became a reunion.
“It was a night where, wherever you were, at the cocktail party, you wanted to stay there all night,” Krzyzewski said. “Then you move to a place and you wanted to stay there all night. And then when you looked around, everybody wanted to stay in the place. It was just, it was one of those beautiful nights.”
This story was originally published October 12, 2021 at 10:01 AM.