Coach K's Fingerprints All over Freshman Growth, Duke's Run to 2015 Final Four

HOUSTON — Quinn Cook sat slumped in his chair in front of his locker with the net around his neck, and he just shook his head searching for the words to describe the moment.

Cook had spent the last two years haunted by the other side of losing a Regional Final when his team watched Louisville celebrate in 2013.

"Not a day, honestly, not a day that goes by when I don't think about that game," Cook said the day before he'd get his second shot at reaching a Final Four.

After a 66-52 win over Gonzaga in the South Region final and celebration on the court at NRG Stadium sucked every emotion out of him Sunday night, he could finally look forward.

"To see everything come together and pay off," Cook said. "Overwhelmed right now. It's an amazing feeling."

That's the journey of a senior in a program with grandiose expectations finally getting to a Final Four.

Only Cook, really, was the singular sufferer in this locker room.

All around him the Baby Blue Devils—half a rotation made up of freshmen—hugged and did secret handshakes, bouncing around like they could have played another 40.

But somehow they had played like veterans.

Only three turnovers in 40 minutes. Freshman point guard Tyus Jones extending a possession with the wherewithal as he glided out of bounds to throw the ball off Przemek Karnowski lying on the ground. Justise Winslow knocking down a dagger three that put the game out of reach.

"It don't matter what class you are when it comes to college basketball," Cook said. "Most of the time the freshmen are the better players. Those guys are mature."

Oh, how the college basketball world has changed since the first time Mike Krzyzewski won a title in 1991.

That was a team hardened by the scars of tournaments past. Those Blue Devils had been blown out by UNLV in the Final Four a year prior and had just one star freshman in Grant Hill, who would go on to stay for four years.

"One-and-done" meant losing your first game in the tournament. That Krzyzewski would have scoffed at winning with rentals. 

Now he's just a regular John (Calipari).

"A teacher should learn with every new year that he or she has an opportunity to teach, because the students can bring out new things for you," Krzyzewski said.

This group has made a believer out of Coach K that he can win a different way, with a model that only Calipari had seemed to conquer.

What has helped Krzyzewski, and he mentioned it after winning Sunday, is coaching USA basketball. Much like Calipari convinces great talent to play with great effort and unselfishness, Coach K had the same mission when he took over the Olympic team.

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

The challenge of coaching Team USA is to get guys to mesh together quickly—in a matter of weeks—and he reworked these Blue Devils into almost a mirror image of those teams right down to the strategies he used to get this team to Indy.

On the Olympic team, he uses behemoth wings such as LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony at power forward.

In late February, Coach K moved junior Amile Jefferson out of the starting lineup and put Winslow at the 4. The freshman has been Duke's best player in the tournament, turning Duke's once-weak defense elite and making the poor big schlubs who defend him look like they're treading in quicksand.

Every game-changing moment on Sunday had Winslow's fingerprints all over it.

"Coach never treated us like freshmen," Winslow said. "No one is scared of that big moment, and we all just relish it when we get it."

They also don't fight over it.

Jahlil Okafor, the likely top pick in June and the star of this team, scored only nine points and willingly let Winslow, Jones and red-hot Matt Jones take the big shots against the Zags.

Matt Jones, a sophomore, had scored 11 points in four career tournament games entering Sunday. He buried four threes and scored 16 points against Gonzaga.

Jones was the one who got the call-up to starter when Coach K decided to go small late in the year, giving Okafor four shooters to space the floor around him.

Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

It was one more example of Krzyzewski scrapping something old—the traditional lineup—for something entirely different. 

"I think the thing that's impressive is his ability to adapt and change through the years," former Duke forward Grant Hill said. "Players today, it's a different generation. They have different experiences. Different things are necessary to motivate them and get them to play, and he's been able to adapt and adjust through the years."

Krzyzewski was once the trend-setting coach in college basketball and the one everyone was chasing. 

Since Coach K won his last title in 2010, Calipari has dominated the college game by reaching four Final Fours in five years.

As the old saying goes, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. 

After his players cut down the net on Sunday night and crowded around the free-throw line like they didn't know what to do next, Krzyzewski told his guys: "Let's go home." 

And then on to Indy. With Calipari.

C.J. Moore covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @CJMooreBR.