Duke Blue Devils basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski to retire after season; Jon Scheyer named successor

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Duke Blue Devils basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski to retire after season; Jon Scheyer named successor


Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, who is the winningest coach in Division I men's basketball history and has led the Blue Devils to five national championships in his 41 seasons, will retire after the 2021-22 season, the university announced Wednesday. Associate head coach Jon Scheyer, who played for Krzyzewski from 2006-10, has been named Krzyzewski's successor. He will spend the 2021-22 season as coach-in-waiting and will take over after that. Duke talked to outside candidates about replacing the 74-year-old Krzyzewski, including Harvard coach Tommy Amaker, sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Scheyer, who was the lead recruiter of NBA star Jayson Tatum and Class of 2021 No. 3 prospect Paolo Banchero, was Duke's choice to replace Krzyzewski, however. Krzyzewski, a Naismith Hall of Fame coach who has 1,097 career wins at Duke, has taken the Blue Devils to the Final Four on 12 occasions. He has won 12 regular-season ACC championships and 15 conference tournament titles while producing 28 NBA lottery picks and 41 first-round selections over the years. Having five national titles puts him second only to former UCLA coach John Wooden, who won 10. Hired at Duke in March 1980, "Coach K'' won national championships in 1991, 1992, 2001, 2010 and 2015, while setting the men's career coaching victories record in November 2011.
Along the way, he also took over the U.S. men's national team -- with NBA All-Star rosters featuring names such as the late Kobe Bryant and LeBron James and led it to Olympic gold in Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016.


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Get ready for Coach K's farewell tour and a realistic run to a national title


The first time I saw Mike Krzyzewski was on a fall Saturday in 1983. It wasn't at Cameron Indoor Stadium, but rather across the street at Wallace Wade Stadium, the long-miserable home of Blue Devils football. In those days, there was plenty of misery to be found in the basketball gym, too. They'd made the Final Four in 1978 and the Elite Eight in 1980, but lost their head coach, hired a guy whom no one could spell his last name, and hadn't been back to the NCAA tournament in the three years since. He, of course, was not fired. Instead, his team won 24 games that winter and made their first NCAA tournament appearance on his watch. They have missed the tourney only twice during the nearly four decades since. That day when I first saw Coach K, I was in elementary school. Ronald Reagan was in his first term. The No. 1 movie at the box office was "Return of the Jedi." That same fall my family bought our first VCR at a Kmart. Ms. Pac-Man was still new. His first coaching rivals were UNC's Dean Smith and NC State's Jim Valvano. The NCAA tournament was a 32-team bracket. Jay Bilas had hair. That's how long it's been since Mike Krzyzewski first moved to Durham, North Carolina. It's a marathon by any measuring stick, be it the 42 years, the five national titles, the 12 Final Fours, 15 ACC tourney titles, 12 ACC regular-season championships, the 1,170 wins or the wall of Olympic gold-medal-winning team photos. It's a safe bet that Krzyzewski still believes deep down that he is the right man for Duke, but it's no secret that he's been frustrated by the drastic changes in the college game over recent years.

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Who is Jon Scheyer? Meeting the Duke basketball assistant who will be Coach K's successor

Jon Scheyer couldn't possibly have chosen bigger shoes to fill for his first head-coaching job. The man likely tasked with replacing the winningest college basketball coach ever is a former Duke player who moved to the Blue Devils' bench just eight years ago and was promoted to associate head coach in 2018. Scheyer has never been a head coach. Mike Krzyzewski single-handedly turned Duke into one of the top programs in college basketball after taking over in 1980. Krzyzewski won five national championships, went to 12 Final Fours, won 12 ACC regular-season titles and 15 ACC tournament championships. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001 and the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. Krzyzewski led Team USA to gold medals at three Olympic Games and two FIBA World Championships.That's the résumé of the man Scheyer is expected to replace following the 2021-22 college basketball season. So who is Jon Scheyer, the 33-year-old Illinois native hand-picked to lead one of the bluest of blue blood programs? During his four years in Durham, Scheyer averaged 14.4 points and shot better than 38% from 3-point range. He led Duke to a national championship in 2010 after earning All-America and first-team All-ACC honors as a senior.

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Duke coach-in-waiting Jon Scheyer: Goal is to 'win the whole damn thing' for Coach K

Mike Krzyzewski opened his introductory news conference at Duke in 1980 by spelling his last name for the media in attendance. Forty-one years later, his replacement started the same way. "So, I don't want to break any tradition yet," Jon Scheyer joked Friday. "Do I need to spell my last name?" Scheyer was introduced as the 20th men's basketball coach at Duke University on Friday, two days after the school announced Kryzewski was going to retire after the 2021-22 college basketball season. Scheyer, 33, played at Duke from 2006 to 2010, leading the Blue Devils to a national championship in his final season. He earned All-American and first-team All-ACC honors as a senior before playing two years professionally overseas. He returned to Durham in 2013 as a special assistant under Krzyzewski, was promoted to assistant coach in 2014 and associate head coach in 2018."It's ironic -- he's 33. I was 33 when I was [hired] here. My main wish for him is not to replicate my first three years. That wouldn't be good." Krzyzewski will be at the helm for this season, although Scheyer is expected to take the lead on the recruiting trail beginning this summer. In less than a year, the hope is he will be able to hit the ground running.

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Coach K won in all different ways, and his final team could be one of his best

When Mike Krzyzewski steps down as Duke head coach after the 2021-22 season, he will have won more than 1,100 career games and at least five national titles. The bottom-line numbers will defy belief, and Coach K will quite rightly be hailed for his remarkable and, in many cases, unequalled quantitative excellence. In fact, it may well be the case that there is no single Coach K "style." (Well, with the possible exception of slapping the floor on defense.) Duke's won national titles while playing fast and by going slow, by never shooting 3s and by attempting them quite frequently and, of course, with teams that were notably experienced and with others that were a bit younger.

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Mike Krzyzewski: A decade of building

The beginnings of this legendary coaching career are, by now, familiar enough. Krzyzewski won a respectable 55% of his games in five years at Army, but he was coming off a 9-17 season when he was, surprisingly, named the new coach at Duke on March 18, 1980. While Coach K struggled in his first three seasons in Durham, the recruiting class that arrived in the fall of 1982 made all the difference. Johnny Dawkins, Mark Alarie, Jay Bilas and David Henderson won a total of 95 games in their four seasons together. That number would turn out to be modest compared to four-year win totals yet to come in Durham, but it marked a definite turning point in the career of Krzyzewski.Conversely, Danny Ferry was on the floor for 117 victories in his four years as a Blue Devil. His career formed the bridge between Dawkins, Alarie, Bilas and Henderson on the one hand and Christian Laettner on the other.

 

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Mike Krzyzewski: The title that got away

If the Laettner teams of the early 1990s were skilled and subsequently renowned, the version of Duke that opponents saw in 1998-99 was downright frightening. Coach K's team played at one of the fastest tempos in the country, outscored its opponents by nearly 25 points per contest and entered the national championship game with a 37-1 record. Whether your metric of choice is adjusted efficiency margin at KenPom or Simple Rating System at sports-reference.com, the collection of Elton Brand, Trajan Langdon, William Avery and Corey Maggette stands out as forming one of the strongest D-I teams of the last quarter-century. But the Blue Devils didn't win the title that year; Connecticut did. Two years later, veterans from that Duke team like Avery and Shane Battier were determined to seize their moment.Duke in 2001 stood out as far and away Krzyzewski's most perimeter-oriented team up to that time. The primary threats from the perimeter that season were Jay Williams and Shane Battier, who drained 132 and 124 3-point shots, respectively. Even the smaller number would have set a new program record, and the Blue Devils won it all that April thanks to a 10-point victory in the title game over Arizona.

 

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Mike Krzyzewski: A decade of building

The beginnings of this legendary coaching career are, by now, familiar enough. Krzyzewski won a respectable 55% of his games in five years at Army, but he was coming off a 9-17 season when he was, surprisingly, named the new coach at Duke on March 18, 1980. While Coach K struggled in his first three seasons in Durham, the recruiting class that arrived in the fall of 1982 made all the difference. Johnny Dawkins, Mark Alarie, Jay Bilas and David Henderson won a total of 95 games in their four seasons together. That number would turn out to be modest compared to four-year win totals yet to come in Durham, but it marked a definite turning point in the career of Krzyzewski.Conversely, Danny Ferry was on the floor for 117 victories in his four years as a Blue Devil. His career formed the bridge between Dawkins, Alarie, Bilas and Henderson on the one hand and Christian Laettner on the other.

Part-2

Along with teammates like Thomas Hill, Grant Hill, Bobby Hurley and Brian Davis, Laettner won back-to-back national championships in 1991 and 1992. These teams rarely shot 3s, even by the interior-oriented standards of the day, but they posed a challenge just the same by virtue of their versatility on offense. While Laettner scored most of his points in the paint, defenses were still stretched because the Duke star and two or more of his teammates were perfectly capable of hitting outside shots. The Blue Devils carved those defenses up with deft passing, strong finishes at the rim and, if rivals were to be believed, an occasional foul call on the opposing team.

 

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Mike Krzyzewski: The title that got away

If the Laettner teams of the early 1990s were skilled and subsequently renowned, the version of Duke that opponents saw in 1998-99 was downright frightening. Coach K's team played at one of the fastest tempos in the country, outscored its opponents by nearly 25 points per contest and entered the national championship game with a 37-1 record. Whether your metric of choice is adjusted efficiency margin at KenPom or Simple Rating System at sports-reference.com, the collection of Elton Brand, Trajan Langdon, William Avery and Corey Maggette stands out as forming one of the strongest D-I teams of the last quarter-century. But the Blue Devils didn't win the title that year; Connecticut did. Two years later, veterans from that Duke team like Avery and Shane Battier were determined to seize their moment.Duke in 2001 stood out as far and away Krzyzewski's most perimeter-oriented team up to that time. The primary threats from the perimeter that season were Jay Williams and Shane Battier, who drained 132 and 124 3-point shots, respectively. Even the smaller number would have set a new program record, and the Blue Devils won it all that April thanks to a 10-point victory in the title game over Arizona.

Part-2

The Blue Devils earned four No. 1 seeds in the five seasons following the 2001 title, yet reached "just" one Final Four over that span. By the time Duke returned to the top seed line in 2010, the team was viewed with some skepticism. It was said that Kyle Singler, Jon Scheyer, Nolan Smith and Miles and Mason Plumlee just weren't "athletic" enough. No Blue Devil would be selected in the first round of the ensuing 2010 NBA draft. This particular team is still the slowest-paced one Coach K's ever had in the KenPom era.

 

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Mike Krzyzewski: Never underestimate Brian Zoubek -- or one-and-dones

What observers failed to price in with this team, however, was that it was outstanding at securing second chances -- particularly off of missed 3s. Brian Zoubek may not have been setting NBA scouts' hearts aflame, but he was dominant under the basket as a senior. Zoubek grabbed six offensive boards in the title game against Butler. That, plus a rather famous last-second miss by the Bulldogs' Gordon Hayward, proved to be enough for a 61-59 win. Having won a fourth title with a rotation heavy on juniors and seniors, Duke would capture a fifth with three stellar freshmen. After previously landing one-and-done players including Kyle Irving, Austin Rivers and Jabari Parker, Coach K managed to assemble that kind of talent in bulk with his 2014-15 team. Freshmen Jahlil Okafor, Justice Winslow and Tyus Jones (along with classmate Grayson Allen) teamed with veterans Quinn Cook and Amile Jefferson and won it all. Duke has alternated with Kentucky for the honor of having either the best or second-best recruiting class in the country in every year since 2014. This reliance on freshmen was seen as plain common sense when the spectacular Zion Williamson carried the Blue Devils to within a basket of the 2019 Final Four. Fashions change quickly in college hoops, however, and this same reliance was branded as ill-advised when Duke posted a 13-11 record in 2020-21.

 

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Mike Krzyzewski: One last season

Krzyzewski isn't through coaching just yet, and no one should be foolhardy enough to speak of the 74-year-old coach in the past tense. His 2021-22 team is likely to be ranked in the preseason top 25 or even, possibly, the top 10. Wendell Moore Jr, and Jeremy Roach will return, as will Mark Williams. (As a freshman, Williams appeared to be on the brink of leading Duke to an improbable at-large bid before the coronavirus forced his team to withdraw from the ACC tournament.) The veterans will be joined by Marquette grad transfer Theo John and freshman Paolo Banchero, a potential No. 1 pick in the 2022 NBA draft. We don't yet know which adjustments, if any, Mike Krzyzewski will make with this latest Duke team, but his record makes one thing clear even now. The man who's won more national titles than anyone not named Wooden, has styles for every opponent, situation and era. They are styles that will have won more than 1,100 times before he is done with them.

 

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Green Bay Packers president says Aaron Rodgers situation has divided fan base

The Green Bay Packers still don't have a solution to the Aaron Rodgers situation, but they know what it has done to their fans. "The situation we face with Aaron Rodgers has divided our fan base," Packers president Mark Murphy wrote in his monthely column published Saturday on the team website. "The emails and letters that I've received reflect this fact." It has been more than a month since news of Rodgers' beef with the organization became public in a report from ESPN's Adam Schefter. Last month, Murphy acknowledged it is an issue the Packers have been working on with Rodgers and his agent, David Dunn, for "several months." Rodgers has skipped the Packers' offseason program, forfeiting a $500,000 workout bonus. If he skips next week's mandatory minicamp, which begins Tuesday, he would be subject to a fine of $93,085. At this point, it has been a mixed reaction in the NFL's smallest city: those who want Rodgers back at any cost and those who are upset with a player who no longer wants to be part of their team.

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^My Bad!^ Edit disable

 

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Aaron Rodgers' Green Bay Packers teammates: We've got his back

Aaron Rodgers hasn't lost the backing of two of his closest friends and teammates as his standoff with the Green Bay Packers continued with his absence from the team's mandatory minicamp. All-Pros Davante Adams and David Bakhtiari threw their support behind their quarterback, while also making sure not to criticize the organization they're still bound to contractually. Packers coach Matt LaFleur would not say whether the team would excuse Rodgers' absence from minicamp and thereby waive the fines he's subject to. The Packers could fine Rodgers up to $93,085 for missing the three-day camp. The fine for missing the first day of camp is $15,515, with subsequent fines of $31,030 for Wednesday and $46,540 for Thursday. Without Rodgers, the Packers gave the majority of the No. 1 quarterback reps to Jordan Love, just as they had during OTAs. Love struggled with accuracy on Tuesday, missing several throws, and failed in his only attempt at the two-minute drill.

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Packers don't hold back any of offense because it's Jordan Love at QB1

One bad, one good and one somewhere in the middle.Such were Jordan Love's three days as QB1 in the Green Bay Packers ' mandatory minicamp.That much could be seen by anyone inside the gates at Clarke Hinkle Field. But what only those in the huddle knew was how much of coach Matt LaFleur's offense Love actually had to work with.Did LaFleur and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett run a stripped-down version of their scheme and bring only a portion of their playbook with them to practice? “No, we installed our offense and kind of threw everything at him,” LaFleur said Thursday at the conclusion of the three-day camp. If it looked like Love was overwhelmed on Tuesday, when he struggled with accuracy and rarely threw the ball much beyond the line of scrimmage, then Wednesday was a 180. He hit receivers in stride down the field and showed poise during a successful two-minute drill.

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Book: Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski pushed for Jon Scheyer to succeed him over Tommy Amaker

Officials at Duke wanted to hire former Blue Devils star Tommy Amaker to replace Mike Krzyzewski after he retires this year, but the coach wanted current associate head coach Jon Scheyer to take the job, according to a new book by author Ian O'Connor due out next week.The book, "Coach K: The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski," chronicles the fabled career of the Duke men's basketball coach, who is retiring after 42 seasons and five NCAA national championships. He announced that this would be his last season on June 2, 2021 -- with Scheyer named his successor the same day. Both Scheyer and Amaker played for Krzyzewski -- Amaker from 1982 to '87 and Scheyer from 2006 to '2010.

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Is there a 'Duke curse' when it comes to NBA prospects?​

Duke players who appeared in or near the first round of ESPN's latest 2022 NBA mock draft: Paolo Banchero (No. 3), A.J Griffen (No. 5), Mark Williams (No. 23), Trevor Keeld (No. 24) and Wendell Moore Jr. (No. 33). While the talent of all five players is undeniable, NBA fans considering the landing spots of the quintet might be doing so with a healthy dose of skepticism. Though 32 current Duke players are active in the NBA, per Basketball-Reference, not all of the school's most heralded pro prospects have developed according to plan. Jayson Tatum, Kyrie Irving, Brandon Ingram and Zion Williams are all recent top-3 picks from Duke who became NBA All-Stars. Marvin Bagley III, Jahlil Okafor and Jabari Parker are recent top-3 picks who failed to become stars at the next level.

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The final march of coach K
As Mike Krzyzewski begins his final tournament run, the Duke legend carries with him the love and loss that made him who he is and who he isn't.

 

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Ticket prices soar for Duke's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski farewell game at Cameron Indoor
There figure to be numerous celebrities in attendance to witness history, including a host of Duke's all-time greats. Indeed, all 208 of Krzyzewski's former players have been invited back for the game.

 

[The Question]

Do people die playing basketball?

No?

Then I don't care about basketball.