Has the game passed Coach K by?

That's the opposite of the Flutie Effect.

The Nifong Effect.

 

Don't forget Bilas, either. They're making a pact to jump off Cameron Indoor as we speak.

 

Coach K still has not gotten over the Avery/Brand early exodus and recruits guys he's certain will remain on the roster for all four years.

And going that route is hurting him.

 

Probably some truth to this. He had that one season when Magette, Brand, and Avery all bolted after only a year or two without graduating and I remember Coach K seeming genuinely suprised and disappointed about it afterward.

Since then, seems like he's largely avoided the guys with one and done potential who everyone knows will never graduate. Williams, Boozer and Dunleavy left after 3 years in 02, but all three graduated first. And McRoberts left early last year, but that was more because of him being an unhappy misfit at Duke than his game.

Coach K has not adjusted his recruiting philosophy to accomodate the one and done era. If there's any place where an argument might be made that the game's passing him by, its there, but he's still an outstanding coach when it comes to the actual coaching part.

 

Oh, I agree. But wouldn't you think Coach K is in a better position to sign them?

 

That is the key -- since that group left he hasn't had good enough players to do what he did in the late 80's and 90's.

He is still a great coach considering he got that collection of horseshit to win 29 games or whatever and convince some people they were a No. 2 seed.

He needs, however, to go out and find a couple of legitimate post guys and if he does, all of these questions about him running out of steam will go away quickly because he'll always have shooters.

 

Just goes to show you that a chance at the NBA is worth more to these Joes than a Duke degree.

 

This is really what it comes down to ... along with K burning the candle at both ends.

When he's out coaching the U.S. national team, he's not in the living rooms of recruits. It's Wojo and Co. who are doing the legwork. If there's fingers to be pointed, it's at who's actually doing the recruiting. They're making mistakes.

And, of course, the head coach who's letting it happen has to take some blame too.

 

The biggest part of the "game passing him by" in college is the ability to recruit players able to win a title.

So even if Coach K is a genius on the sidelines it doesn't matter.

If he's not recruiting the players to put Duke in position to win a title or get back to the Final Four, his American Express Platinum Card days may be over.

 

Not so much Krzyzewski, but I would begin to make the argument for Gary Williams, Jim Boeheim, Jim Calhoun (certainly) and, if he was around this year, Lute Olsen (though his presence might have taken him off that list - the jury's out).

 

Even if he wasn't coaching the MNT Wojo and Co. would still be the guys sitting in each kid's living room. Head coaches are deal closers, not recruiters.

 

this line seems to be accepted as truth in punditry, and well...i don't really see it. two things.

first, had exodus '99 not happened, this would have been duke's roster in 2000:

PG- will avery
SG- jason williams
SF- chris carrawell
PF- shane battier
C- elton brand
bench: (take a deep breath) corey maggette, carlos boozer, mike dunleavy, chris burgess, nate james, casey sanders

that is a good team, if by "good" we mean "would beat '92 duke by 20." there's no way K could have assembled all those guys at one time without realizing before the fact that dudes were gonna jump. no way do you expect to have a system wherein you'd keep corey maggette and carlos boozer on the bench.

it was widely assumed brand was out the door. IIRC, he even said as much in his pre-championship-game ESPN sunday conversation. maggette was the last to bolt, but i don't think any more than 40% of duke fans thought he'd stick around.

avery was a surprise, yes, but only because it seemed like a dumb decision. it might not have been- will's grades were known to be awful, and the looming j-will would have seemed like a hit to avery's role.

second: is K really only recruiting guys who seem like 4-year types? deng didn't stay four years, and no one expected him to. mcroberts didn't stay four years (i had him pegged at 3 and gone). shelden williams didn't seem like a 4-year guy, but turned out to be. same goes for daniel ewing, really. even after getting "burned" by brand/avery, he won a championship featuring three guys in the starting five who didn't stay four years. betcha henderson doesn't stay four years. K even signed shaun livingston, who...heh, obviously wasn't a 4-year guy.

K made the final 4 in 2004. rebuilding year...but an ACC tournament title and a #1 seed...in 2005 after livingston never showed up. good enough to win it all in 2006, but choked. it's the last two years that have really given fire to the "game's passed K by" line, and it may be true...there's no excuse why this team is assembled wholly sans usable center/PF. is it because K screwed up on the recruiting trail? yes. is it because he's afraid of early departures? nah.