Coach K’s former players, assistants react to his decision to retire after next season

Notre Dame coach Mike Brey recalled his amazement with Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s demenaor during a video conference call for ACC men’s basketball coaches two weeks ago.

Krzyzewski was passionate about several issues being discussed, including allowing entry-level staff positions like video coordinators and director of basketball operations to be able to coach on the floor. Brey thought it may have been because the reality of North Carolina coach Roy Williams retirement invigorated the 74-year-old Krzyzewski to grapple with Father Time a bit longer.

“He was so energized and vocal in a really good way because he’s just got all the history of our issues,” Brey told The News & Observer. “I said, ‘Roy retiring just jacked him up for another three years.’ That was my thought. That was my real thought.”

As Brey and the college basketball world found out Wednesday, Krzyzewski is done fighting the inevitable. The the 2021-22 season will be the last for the legendary coach who won five national championships at Duke and guided USA Basketball to three Olympic gold medals.

Several of his former players and coaching staff members who spoke to The N&O were not entirely shocked by the news, although they were surprised by the timing.

“I mean, all of us knew this day would come where he wouldn’t coach anymore,” said Steve Wojciechowski, who both played for and coached under Krzyzewski. “But it’s still surreal. He’s been such a fixture at Duke and and in college basketball, and that it’s hard to imagine both of those entities without him.”

Krzyzewski will conclude his 42nd season coaching the Blue Devils, which is the second-longest active tenure behind Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, who is entering his 46th season at the helm.

ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas played for Duke as part of their heralded 1982 recruiting class that included Johnny Dawkins and has largely been credited for building Krzyzewski’s winning foundation at Duke. Bilas played on the 1986 team that lost in the national championship game to Louisville. He also served as an assistant on Krzyzewski’s staffs that won back-to-back national titles in 1991 and 1992.

Bilas said he was continually asked over the past few seasons how much longer Krzyzewski would coach. The better question was how would he step down.

Leaves a giant footprint

“When you really think about it, it wasn’t the ‘how long,’ it was the ‘how,’ ” Bilas said. “How does a coach who has been there for 40 years step away? And when? At the start of the year? At the end of the year? It’s a really hard thing to do, so I’m grateful that we’ve got another year with him.”

Brey, who was an assistant at Duke from 1987-95, said he doesn’t think the coaching model that includes Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton and Miami’s Jim Larranaga all coaching into their 70s won’t be something that continues when they all retire.

But Krzyzewski’s impact will continue to be seen through the many former players who have taken different roles at all levels of basketball. Quinn Synder has the Utah Jazz as the No. 1 seed in the NBA’s Western Conference. Trajan Langdon is the general manager of the New Orleans Pelicans. Chris Collins took Northwestern to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 2017.

“There are few people that have the footprint that Coach leaves behind, not only in the game of basketball, but in all of sports,” said Harvard coach Tommy Amaker, who played for Duke from 1983-87, in a statement.

Ricky Price, who played at Duke from 1994-98 and now runs Game Ready Skills and Development Training in Charlotte, said Krzyzewski’s legacy of teaching will stand out more than his record for all-time wins.

“All the stuff that I teach the kids that I work with now, I learned from him and the coaching staff at Duke,” Price told The N&O. “And the way to navigate through being a great basketball player, how to be responsible, how to be professional, I mean all of these things in some way shape or form I learned from Coach K.”

Duke’s coach-in waiting Jon Scheyer will now take those lessons and be ready to apply it on the sidelines in 2022-23.

Coach K for Czar?

Bilas said Krzyzewski, a West Point graduate, refers to his preparation during the season as being in “battle mode,” so the forthcoming tributes and potential gifts on a “farewell tour” through the schedule could make for an interesting mix.

“We’ve had icons that have retired in football and basketball for decades, and it always seems like it’s never going to be the same,” Bilas said. “And it’s not going to be the same. You know it wasn’t the same at North Carolina when Dean Smith retired, but it’s been great. And it won’t be the same at Duke, and it’s not been the same as some other places, but the game will go on just fine.”

Well, maybe not so fine. Brey said college basketball is at a crossroads with the transfer portal ballooning with 1,500 names, competition for talent from the NBA’s G-League and other professional options and the incoming impact of Name, Image and Likeness in recruiting.

Brey said on the ACC coaches call, Krzyzewski said he hoped Roy Williams and more former coaches would help the NCAA and NABC navigate through it.

“Two weeks later, now I’m going to say the same thing when I see him, ‘We need you,’ ” Brey said. “Maybe we can get him to be the unofficial czar because he has time to do it and wow, do we ever need it.”