One thing has marred Coach K’s final summer on Duke’s sideline
The last summer of Mike Krzyzewski’s long, storied coaching career has included family vacations, charitable events and important time with the players who’ll make up his final Duke team.
It has also included a notable period of mourning.
Blue, the family’s 12-year-old dog, succumbed to lung cancer.
“That’s a bummer,” Krzyzewski said Wednesday. “Blue passed away. He was my buddy. And for any of you who have pets, you know how that is.”
Krzyzewski said he and the family returned home from what he called “a great family vacation” to Lake Gaston and Blue wasn’t feeling well. A trip to the veterinarian led to the cancer diagnosis.
“And a week later he died in my arms at my house,” Krzyzewski said. “Sad. He’s a good guy. Really good guy.”
The family has yet to find another dog, with Krzyzewski saying “we haven’t recruited anyone to replace him yet.”
Duke’s coach since 1980 and a college head coach since 1975, the 74-year-old Krzyzewski announced in June he would be retiring following this upcoming basketball season. Duke selected associate head coach Jon Scheyer to take over as head coach next year.
That allowed Krzyzewski to put his total focus on this season’s team while Scheyer and the rest of the assistant coaches hit the road recruiting players for the classes of 2022 and beyond.
Here are a few of the topics, in addition to the loss of his beloved dog, Krzyzewski and Duke’s players covered with reporters during a Zoom meeting on Wednesday afternoon:
A bigger, stronger team
Not including former walk-ons Keenan Worthington and Michael Savarino, Duke returns four players from last season’s team that went 13-11 and missed the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1995.
The team’s newcomers arrived on campus in June and the team has been working together all summer with Krzyzewski tutoring them.
“I got to know them as individual players,” Krzyzewski said. “We’re bigger. You’ll see right away when we do warm-up lines. They are more physically mature, bigger guys. I think all 10 of my guys can play.”
Freshman Paolo Banchero, a 6-foot-10, 250-pound forward, is the highest-rated of the newcomers. Duke also added two sturdy graduate transfers in Theo John, a 6-9, 242-pound center from Marquette, and Bates Jones, a 6-8, 222-pound forward from Davidson.
That’s in addition to 7-foot, 242-pound center Mark Williams returning for his sophomore season.
“Our guys are stronger,” Krzyzewski said. “We’re going to be a bigger team. We were not a very physical team last year. I think we can be a very physical team and a more mature team.”
What do Duke veterans think of the new guys?
In addition to Banchero, Duke also added two other five-star recruits in 6-6 forward A.J. Griffin and 6-4 shooting guard Trevor Keels, plus a four-star point guard in Jaylen Blakes.
The recruiting class is ranked No. 4 nationally and No. 1 in the ACC.
“They came in ready to work and ready to learn,” said 6-7 senior forward Joey Baker, who entered Duke as a freshman back in 2018 along with Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish. “They are all about winning, which is really important. They don’t care about any of the accolades or any of that stuff. They are all about winning and laying it out there.”
A year ago, due to COVID restrictions, Duke’s basketball players didn’t return to campus until August and even then lived in hotel rooms and weren’t able to socialize much. Key bonding time was missed.
This summer is far different.
“We’ve been here about a month together working out, getting to play with each other and just off the court we’re always with each other,” junior forward Wendell Moore said.
Hello, old friend
One returning player, sophomore point guard Jeremy Roach, has reunited with Keels, his old teammate from Paul VI High School in Fairfax, Virginia.
They are enjoying sharing a backcourt again.
“We’re going to do the same things we did at PVI,” Roach said. “Just watch the success come.”
As for a scouting report, Roach said, “ “Trev loves to score. He plays on both ends. The guy really worked on his body this summer. So he’s really moving side-to-side laterally really good so he’s going to be a nice addition to the team and I’m excited to be playing with him again.”
This story was originally published August 11, 2021 at 6:11 PM with the headline "One thing has marred Coach K’s final summer on Duke’s sideline."