Duke’s baton now totally passed from Coach K to Jon

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  “40 “/ > Dan WetzelApr 4, 2025, 07:30 AM ET Close Dan Wetzel is a senior writer focused on investigative reporting, think piece and function storytelling.SAN ANTONIO– For over 3 decades

  , Mike Krzyzewski lorded over the Final Four.He brought his Duke program here 13 times, winning 5 national titles and ending up being fully linked with not simply the program, however the university as well.Editor’s Picks 1 Associated Duke. K. It was one and the same.Then, in 2022, after 42 seasons, he retired and– a minimum of when it pertains to

Blue Devils basketball– all but disappeared.Despite the program being run the past three seasons by Jon Scheyer, a star on Duke’s 2010 national championship team who later invested nine years as Coach

K’s assistant, and Krzyzewski preserving not just a house in your area, but a workplace on campus, the now-78-year-old has been to practice simply a few times and didn’t participate in a single game up until this season.It has all become part of Krzyzewski’s plan to step into the shadows and allow his old program to end up being Scheyer’s program by preventing the hovering presence of a legend.It is also, numerous believe, a factor that Duke is not just back in the Last Four, however the betting favorite to clip the internet Monday, under the 38-year-old Scheyer.

“Coach K has given me incredible room to be myself, “Scheyer stated Thursday. “I think he comprehends, when he’s around, simply the gravity and the people taking a look at him and all

that. It’s been, like, a stunning thing, extremely natural and natural with Coach K and I. The fact [is] we’re still tight as might be.”For Krzyzewski, this could not be easy.He was notoriously in control of every facet of his program through the years, computing and seizing every last advantage. His life was basketball

, specifically Duke basketball. Scheyer said he regularly calls Krzyzewski for recommendations. K also occasionally talks to the players when he faces them around the basketball center and has addressed the group each season.Everything else, though, is hands-off, a truth that needs the discipline of a West Point grad performing a well-thought-out strategy that K believed would most benefit Scheyer and therefore most benefit Duke basketball

.”Not many coaches truly desire the program to succeed once they’re done, “Scheyer said. “I believe part of his legacy permanently will be the reality that he set our program up for such success, and we have the ability to remain in a Final 4

in Year 3. It’s a credit to him and how the succession has actually decreased.” The difficulty of succeeding a successful coach has afflicted programs and franchises for years. Preserving achievement is always challenging. Finding succeeding elite coaches is, too. It can be particularly challenging when the replacement is a young coach in

his first task, learning in the spotlight of expectations. Krzyzewski, for instance, won 10 and 11 games, respectively, in his second and 3rd seasons. Few paid attention.Scheyer is 89-21(.809)as a head coach, proving himself both on the sidelines in addition to on the recruiting path– with freshman feeling Cooper Flagg, in specific. Scheyer hasn’t taken the residues of a Krzyzewski team to the Final 4; this is all his work. Simply one player, senior center Stanley Borden, rollovers from Krzyzewski’s last team in 2021-22.” I believe most people wish to be the guy who follows the guy who follows the guy, right?”Borden stated Thursday. “The first guy who followed the guy will take all the blame when things don’t work out.”Krzyzewski stated on his Sirius XM Radio Show that he and his better half, Mickie, will be going to Saturday’s semifinal versus Houston

. He did not attend a game throughout Scheyer’s very first two seasons however returned this season, including sitting next to actor and Duke alum Ken Jeong at a game in Las Vegas. He hasn’t been to a NCAA tournament game yet, nevertheless.”I

‘m intending on being there to watch ’em, “Krzyzewski said on the show.”I try to avoid of it publicly, just to offer our program an opportunity to keep moving in its instructions. However I want to be there for Scheyer. … Look, I desire Duke to win. So I want to exist in support of them. “That the news broke as part of Krzyzewski’s own radio program is a sign that he has actually hardly slowed down.

He’s still exceptionally visible in national advertising campaigns and with speaking engagements.Yet when it comes to Duke Basketball, there is no question who remains in charge.Borden stated there are resemblances between the guys– Scheyer, after all, still calls Krzyzewski, his”Coach”– however that the program has completely transitioned.”

They’re both lethal competitive,”Borden stated.”I think they just have extremely various styles. The characters are very various. … I can see the through line from one to the other.

Coach Scheyer simply spins it and says it and does it in his own way.”What I can say from understanding Coach Scheyer, both when he was associate head coach then head coach, is that he is a basketball sage. He just sees the game in a different way.

“That is what has actually stood out throughout college basketball. Perhaps it’s the absence of Krzyzewski sitting 2 rows behind the bench, or perhaps it’s just that Duke(35-3) plays such a dazzling brand of basketball that this group in particular stands on its own.”I’ll tell you how excellent Jon Scheyer has been,

nobody discuss him changing Coach K any more,”Houston coach Kelvin Sampson stated.”I believe that speaks volumes for him. “Scheyer stated he has actually valued that Krzyzewski has actually begun to feel comfortable pertaining to a couple games and hopes K is in attendance Saturday.”I desire him to be proud when he sees us,”Scheyer said.Maybe Krzyzewski no longer worrying about eclipsing his protégé would act as the supreme indication that the objective has actually been achieved and the

baton in Durham has fully been passed.