Duke Basketball: Coach K's Consistency a Major Reason for Success

One thing Mike Krzyzewski has taught the world is you do not become a successful coach by being a rigorous unbending force. The days of the authoritative “my way or the highway” coach is no more.

In 31 years at Duke, the list of Coach Krzyzewski’s accomplishments is enormous, yet he is constantly evolving. When several underclassmen left school way too early for the NBA, in 1999, he decided then to start recruiting players that would be around for a while.

He had some success, but as time went by there were grumblings that maybe he had lost his touch, especially when his teams washed out early in the NCAA tournament. Also rival North Carolina was becoming unbeatable!

Duke won a championship with upperclassmen last year but a change was eminent as the world was not that patient. They got in late on the John Wall recruitment and even though Wall later signed with Kentucky, Coach K had sent a message to the recruiting world: Duke was back on the scene, they wanted elite players. This eventually led to Kyrie Irving’s commitment even though there was a high possibility he would never be a sophomore.

Irving was just as good as projected; sadly a toe injury limited his contribution to just 11 games for Duke. That’s all it took for Irving to realise his dreams of becoming an NBA player, and thus will be the second player to be drafted as a Duke freshman in 10 years.

Now, McDonald’s All-American Austin Rivers is on his way to Durham. He is at least a top-two rated recruit on any list and unless the NBA makes some changes to the rule where a player has to be one year removed from his high school graduating class before being eligible for the draft, pundits will personally escort Rivers to the NBA, if he lives up to his potential next year.

Being able to evolve and roll with the punches is what makes Duke so great. They do not stick to any rigorous system year after year. The offense is tailored to the strength of the current players.

Take Nolan Smith, for example. This article drives home the point that when he first came to Duke, the system just did not suit his style of play, but later as the upperclassmen graduated Coach K reverted to a more up tempo offense that Smith and Jon Scheyer flourished in that eventually led to Krzyzewski’s fourth championship in 2010.

These changes are not only on the court. The rise of social media brought access to players that had not been there before. Previously, some coaches did not even allow freshmen speak to the media, but with a Twitter account they can be as free as they want.

Take CJ Leslie, for instance. Last week, after watching a documentary on John Amaechi, an openly gay ex NBA player, the NC State forward thought Twitter was the best platform to air his views on the subject.

Hopefully he will have learned by now that he is free to share negative thoughts at will but be prepared for the backlash. There was a reason why fired coach Sidney Lowe banned his players from Tweeting last season.

Duke does not ban players from tweeting but it is easy to assume that they have been given some kind of guidance. If you happen to follow Nolan Smith, Seth Curry or Andre Dawkins, you will know that their tweets are very entertaining and insightful as any normal college kids but they give nothing away. No reports about injuries, or thoughts on opposing players or other programs just positive interaction with fans and friends.

This breeds a positive atmosphere, and if players are happy then it translates to better play.