Should Duke's Mike Krzyzewski Have Spoken out Against ACC Expansion?

I had a dream about Duke's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski.  I dreamt that he used his influence, his celebrity, and his leverage to speak out against the recent ACC expansion.

I dreamt he said that it was wrong.  It was not a good idea to destroy what had become the best basketball conference in the country (Big East) and it was wrong the last time the ACC preyed upon the Big East in 2003.

I dreamt that Krzyzewski went on to say that it was a bad idea to ruin the great rivalries that existed within the Big East and the expansion was one big money grab that was wrong for a sport that helped make him a legendary coach.

The dream finished with the Duke coach saying that if the ACC's addition of Syracuse and Pitt wasn't immediately annulled, he would resign from coaching in the ACC.  He would go on to say he didn't want to have anything to do with a conference that thought it was in their best interest to bring down another BCS conference.

But in a recent Sporting News article entitled "ACC Expansion Dishonorable But at Least Logical" author David Steele wrote "Krzyzewski put it this way,as part of his effusive support of expansion from day one. He thought it was one of the brilliant moves of the ACC."

In the Washington Post on Oct 12th, the 64 year old coach was quoted as saying "I think you have to continue to explore expansion questions. Is 14 the right number? Will 16 be?"

In the Sept. 19. edition of USA Today, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, someone who is in a similar situation to Krzyzewski because the Orange are leaving the Big East for the ACC, expressed a different view.

Boeheim made it clear he was against the expansion and said "If conference commissioners were the founding fathers of this country, we would have Guatemala, Uruguay and Argentina in the United States."

Boeheim continued,"This audience knows why we are doing this. There's two reasons: Money and football."

Krzyzewski, who has won 900 collegiate games and will soon pass his mentor Bobby Knight's record of 903 wins, played for Knight at West Point. He went on to serve in the Army from 1969 to 1974.

In the Army you do what you're told.  The army wouldn't work if people didn't follow orders.

Krzyzewski is not in the army any more.  He's allowed to have original thoughts and express those thoughts.  If he thinks ACC expansion is wrong for college basketball he can say it.

He's not a young coach just starting out who's expected to go along with his school's policy and take the company man approach.

Krzyzewski doesn't owe Duke President Richard Brodhead or ACC Commissioner John Swoffard anything.  They owe him.

So where's Krzyzewski?  Where is he on saving the great rivalries of college basketball?  Where is he on preserving other conferences that give meaning to the geographical area they represent? Where is he on pointing out that the ACC expansion is one big money grab?

He's nowhere?

Bobby Knight has always been a man and coach who lets you know where he stands.  He never wrapped up what he really thought in some kind of bureaucratic bull to score points with his employers.

Knight might have paid the price more than once for being outspoken but he spoke from the heart.

Knight respected the game, the rivalries, and never put his own personal gain in front doing the right thing for college basketball.

Krzyzewski learned a lot of coaching from Knight, but maybe he missed out on the bigger picture.