Duke Basketball: Analyzing Importance of Coach K's System for NBA Rookies

After just one season at Duke, 19-year-old Kyrie Irving has been one of this season's most impressive NBA rookies.

Irving is averaging 18.3 points, 4.8 assists and 3.5 rebounds while shooting 48 percent from the field, despite landing on the lowly Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2011 NBA draft.

And the No. 1 overall pick credits former head coach Mike Krzyzewski for his quick learning curve.

Irving told Cleveland's 92.3 The Ticket on Tuesday, via SportsRadioInterviews.com:

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I would just say that I’ve been blessed enough to have a great and fast learning curve and adjustment period. I would definitely say that coming into my senior of of high school, my freshman year at Duke and my rookie year here, it takes a while to get adjusted to the pace of the game. That’s kind of what Coach taught me coming into Duke, which helped accelerate that process coming into the NBA. Three-hour practices at Duke, first-class traveling, we had it all at Duke. I was more prepared, I’d say, than other rookies coming into the NBA game.

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Irving, who has been hailed as the second coming of Chris Paul, played in just 11 games for Duke, averaging 17.5 points, 4.3 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 1.5 steals while shooting 53 percent from the floor.

While there haven't been many star point guards to come out of Duke, there's no question that Coach K has developed a lot of big-time NBA players.

Just to name a few, Krzyzewski has coached: Grant Hill, Luol Deng, Carlos Boozer, Elton Brand, Shane Battier, Corey Maggette, Mike Dunleavy, Chris Duhon and J.J. Redick.

Beyond their abilities on the floor, what all of these players share is that they're all very heady players, displaying a good knowledge of the game. Deng was selected to the All-Star Game this season.

Irving, with apologies to all of these players, could become better than them all. He obviously still has some learning to do, not to mention he's been thrust into the starting role of a bad NBA team, but he's already shown the potential that so many NBA teams saw in him from the start.

Coach K is one of the most respected coaches in college basketball history, but we oftentimes forget what he does for these kids as they translate to the next level.