DURHAM, N.C. — Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski is not ready to stop coaching college basketball.
But, he told The News & Observer in an exclusive interview Thursday morning prior to his retirement press conference, he knows he will be in a year.
That’s why he and his wife, Mickie, decided this week was the time to formalize a succession plan.
Recruiting for the Class of 2022 is in full swing. Krzyzewski, true as always to his Army West Point education and code of conduct with regards to honesty, said he wanted the recruits coming next year to know Jon Scheyer would be their head coach and not him.
“This allows Jon and Chris (Carrawell) and Nolan (Smith) to put together their team,” Krzyzewski said in a phone interview. “For me to get to the end of next year (and leave), it wouldn’t be right.”
Krzyzewski will coach the Blue Devils one final season, his 42nd at Duke, before associate head coach Scheyer takes over as his replacement in April 2022. Krzyzewski reiterated at his news conference the timing of his announcement and naming of Scheyer was about maintaining a “continuity of excellence,” which he also learned from West Point.
“If you do not have anybody that can take command, you’re in trouble,” Krzyzewski said. “We do. We do. And so that was one of the things I was concerned about. I don’t want everything to end when I stopped coaching I want it to continue.”
Closing out the regular season with Duke vs. UNC
Krzyzewski said he and Mickie are in good health, so this decision is not related to any health issues. He said the changing world of college basketball, with players able to transfer and play immediately and the upcoming changes that will allow players to profit from name, image and likeness while playing college athletics, is not why he’s planning to step away.
“I’ve been in it for 46 years,” Krzyzewski said. “You mean the game has never changed? We have always had to adapt to the changes in culture, changes in rules, changes in the world.”
Krzyzewski arrived at Duke 41 years ago at age 33, the age Scheyer is now.
Krzyzewski’s final season with the Blue Devils begins Nov. 9 at the Champions Classic against Kentucky at Madison Square Garden. Duke annually plays games in the New York City area, mostly at MSG, the one arena outside Durham where Krzyzewski feels the most at home.
His final regular-season game will be at Cameron Indoor Stadium in March 2022 against rival North Carolina.
That’s quite a coda.
In between, he’ll be part of a farewell tour that will celebrate his historic accomplishments — an all-time record 1,170 wins, 12 Final Fours (no coach has been in more), a league-record 15 ACC tournament championships and five NCAA championships.
“There are no words to account for what will be 42 years,” Duke athletics director Kevin White said Thursday during a press conference. “Mike’s tenure can only be described as the best ever.”
Krzyzewski held a Zoom call Wednesday with the players who will make up his final Duke team.
“I’m so excited about this upcoming year,” Krzyzewski said during Thursday’s press conference. “It’s not about having a run next year. It’s about having a finish.”
Farewell tour
What a finish it will be, especially when the Blue Devils go on the road. Opposing schools, particularly in the ACC, will likely have tributes and parting gifts planned to present to Krzyzewski, before wanting to send him home with one final loss in his last trip to said venue.
Duke assistant coach Nolan Smith said the pressure on the players won’t change too much because “every year is like a farewell tour where everybody wants to beat us.”
“When you wear this Duke jersey you know there’s always gonna be pressure,” Smith said. “But now with that added energy in opposing teams’ arenas, we are going to have to calm them down and start a game like it’s just a normal road game. There’s gonna be a little more attention on coach but as players they’ve got to approach it the same way, prepare the same way and get ready go out there and handle the business.”
Rising junior Wendell Moore Jr. anticipates next season could be like the 2018-19 year when celebrities like Jay-Z, LeBron James and even former President Barack Obama appeared at Duke games to watch Zion Williamson play.
“Everything was so electric because everybody wanted to come in and see Zion,” Moore said. “So now everybody’s gonna want to come see coach K's last game. They really want to be able to say they were there for that last moment.”
That’s why current assistant coach Chris Carrawell, who played at Duke from 1996-2000, called it “a great, great day” that Krzyzewski is dictating the way he will end his career. Carrawell said the team was focused on making Krzyzewski’s final season unforgettable.
“It’s sad for fans, you read the comments and you see the emojis with the tears coming down,” Carrawell said. “But it’s really a celebration. We knew this day was coming. And it came, but we’re gonna have a hell of a year. We’re looking forward to the year, and we want to make this the best year out of all the years that coach has coached.”
Coach K fights back tears
During his comments offering a retrospective of his career, Krzyzewski’s voice cracked when he discussed his late parents who convinced him to head to West Point when he was leaning toward Creighton.
“They believed in me,” Krzyzewski said.
He fought back tears when talking about Tom Butters, the late Duke athletic director who hired Krzyzewski in 1980 and stood by him in 1983 when Duke boosters wanted a coaching change following an 11-17 season.
“My opportunities were followed with belief,” Krzyzewski said. “The best. The very best.”
He also said he was appreciative that Butters was still around to convince him to stay in 1995 when he was considering leaving coaching. Krzyzewski said he needed to heal physically, mentally and emotionally when he sat out the final 19 games of the 1994-95 season and had he not taken that break, his career would have ended long before now.
He said he turned away from micromanaging every situation and doing a better job of listening, all at the urging of his wife and three daughters.
“I learned balance and I didn’t have it all the time,” Krzyzewski said.
He also said he’s been learning from his players more now too. Krzyzewski pointed out current players Moore Jr., and Joey Baker seated in the audience of Cameron Indoor Stadium alongside Krzyzewski’s three daughters and their families in attendance. There’s a 50-plus year age gap between Krzyzewski and his players, “So it’s up to me. How am I going to communicate with them?”
Krzyzewski said he’s learned how to “keep his shoe game up” from his players and they teach him current phrases and what’s current in music.
“For me, I adapt how I communicate and how we play,” Krzyzewski said at the press conference. “But I do not adapt the principles and the values of our program that we teach them.”
That’s why Thursday he was able to reflect on the impending end of his coaching career with few regrets.
“If you work at what you love,” Krzyzewski said, “it’s not work.”
The next chapter
Krzyzewski will be 75 years old at the end of next season, when he will transition to an ambassador role where he will counsel people campus-wide.
“There will always be a place for Coach K at Duke,” Duke president Vincent Price said at the news conference Thursday.
There’s a place for him in college basketball too, should he choose to make it happen.
Krzyzewski has often spoken about the need for a czar of sorts for leadership within college basketball and to help break down the divide between the NBA, grassroots basketball and high school basketball. But he said on Thursday, he has no desires to be that czar in retirement.
Krzyzewski said he’ll run “the motion offense” meaning he’ll try to be adaptable and focus on where his time and energy are most needed.
“To me, one of the first things is going to be what does Duke need from me in that new world,” Krzyzewski said. “I will always be connected with the game.”
