Has Duke's 2015 Season Been Mike Krzyzewski's Best Coaching Job Ever?
As the Duke Blue Devils continue their foray toward the Final Four and a shot at a national championship this weekend in Houston, they are striking a different chord than most Duke teams of the past have.
Unlike most of the great Duke teams under head coach Mike Krzyzewski, the 2014-15 edition of the Blue Devils is led by a trio of freshmen. Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones and Justise Winslow have developed into three of the top contributors in the nation. And their production is one of the main reasons why Duke is still alive in the NCAA men's basketball tournament.
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While it must be acknowledged that the three first-year players are exceptional talents, credit must be given to Krzyzewski as well for molding his team around the trio and into a title contender.
Not only has Krzyzewski had to bank on the talents of the freshmen, but he has also had to navigate through the season with a depleted roster. Rasheed Sulaimon, who was seen as a key asset off the bench at the start of the year, was dismissed from the program during conference play.
Since Krzyzewski has been able to get his team through all of the potential road blocks from November up until now, it must be asked if this is the Duke head coach's best job during his time in Durham.
Krzyzewski joined the program before the 1980-81 season, and he has won four national titles during his tenure at Duke.
Most of the major producers on each of those championship teams were upperclassmen. Rarely did Krzyzewski use a first-year player as a go-to guy during his four runs to a national title.
Duke had a talented freshman in Grant Hill during the 1990-91 season, but Hill was the fifth-best scorer on a team led by junior Christian Laettner and sophomore Bobby Hurley.
In the season before the Blue Devils won the first of their two consecutive championships, they reached the final before losing to UNLV. Even though Hurley and fellow sophomore Bill McCaffrey, who averaged 12.4 points per game that year, were in their second year of college, they had plenty of big-game experience in the NCAA tournament to bank on.
Hill turned into a bigger contributor as a sophomore the next season, but he still wasn't the marquee name on the roster with Laettner and Hurley around. The special group of players that won two straight national titles carried a ton of experience with them by the time they faced off against Michigan for the 1992 national championship.
It didn't come as a total shock in 2001 when the Blue Devils advanced to the national championship behind the production of three sophomores and two seniors. Even though Jay Williams, Carlos Boozer and Mike Dunleavy were in their second year of collegiate ball, they still had two NCAA tournament wins under their belts.
The trio of electric playmakers also benefited from the senior leadership displayed by Shane Battier and Nate James during the run to Krzyzewski's third title.
When it came time for the Blue Devils to win their fourth NCAA tournament under Coach K, they had an extremely experienced roster led by senior Jon Scheyer and juniors Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith in 2010.
Behind the play of the squad full of upperclassmen, the Blue Devils defeated a No. 4, No. 3, No. 2 and No. 5 seed in the final four rounds of the Big Dance. Their biggest test came in the final when Cinderella Butler pushed them to the brink in the Bulldogs' backyard in Indianapolis.
Fast forward to 2015 and the Blue Devils do not carry most of the features the previous four championship teams had. Quinn Cook is the lone senior leader on the team, but he can be viewed as an extra asset at times due to the star power of Okafor, Jones and Winslow.
There is no doubt Cook has helped Jones with his development in the backcourt, but the senior guard doesn't have the tournament experience other senior classes at Duke carried with them through their final run in March Madness.
Before the 2014-15 season, Cook had a 3-3 record in the Big Dance thanks to the upset losses to Lehigh and Mercer in 2012 and 2014. The unusual lack of big-game experience in March is rare for a Duke senior to have, but that is exactly what Cook brought to the table at the beginning of the year.
The Blue Devils also faced a brutal ACC schedule, which featured seven games against ranked opposition. In most years a 15-3 record in conference play would be good enough for Duke to claim the regular-season title, but it fell one win short of tying for Virginia for that specific crown.
Duke also suffered a setback in the ACC tournament semifinal when it fell to Notre Dame. Some young teams may have turned in a disappointing performance in the game following a deflating loss like that. But the Blue Devils responded with a dominant win over Robert Morris in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Two days after their second-round triumph, the Blue Devils outmuscled San Diego State in Charlotte and earned a trip to the Sweet 16 to play Utah on Friday night.
Despite all the evidence that would lead you to believe this season was Krzyzewski's best year as coach of the Blue Devils, an argument can be made against that claim as well.
Okafor, Jones and Winslow are all NBA talents in the age of the one-and-done player in college basketball. While they may not go down as terrific four-year collegiate student-athletes, the trio will definitely be remembered for their spectacular efforts on the court at Duke.
Because Duke did feature the superior talent on the floor in almost every game it played this season, some may argue the players will have earned a potential national championship with their talent more than Krzyzewski would with his coaching abilities.
It is certainly a debate that could go on for days around the Duke campus. But given all of the other bits of adversity the program has faced so far this season, it is fair to think this is Krzyzewski's best coaching job.
Krzyzewski had to get a talented group of freshmen to jell with each other, deal with a limited roster and fend off a bit of concern surrounding his team's recent success in March. He also had to keep his team focused in January as he approached his 1,000th career win. Some may have seen the buildup to the milestone as a distraction, but Krzyzewski was able to coach his team past No. 6 Louisville before locking up wins No. 999 and No. 1,000 against Pittsburgh and St. John's.
After looking through all of his past success and the achievements he has earned this season at Duke, it wouldn't be crazy to claim this as Krzyzewski's best season ever as a coach.
If there is any doubt left out there about that statement, the Blue Devils can quiet any lingering concerns with two wins this weekend and a Final Four berth.
Follow Joe on Twitter, @JTansey90.
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