Coach K and USA Basketball

[NY44]

NBA needs to pull stars from USA Basketball, which is showcasing only Duke's coachl (http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba-needs-to-pull-stars-from-usa-basketball--which-is-showcasing-only-duke-s-coach-044717393.html)

As always, Woj wrote an amazing article. Definitely worth a read. I had never even considered what an enormous advantage USA basketball is for Coach K. It's not just notoriety, it's unrivaled access to the best youth players in America.

My favorite line was, "Why sit in the steamy summer-circuit AAU gyms trying to make eye contact with 16-year-olds, when you can use the media to write about all the close, personal relationships you've developed with LeBron and Kobe, 'Melo and Kevin Durant?"

[GoMuskies]

Coach K is the only who has managed to win in the last decade or so. If the other guys had won, Coach K wouldn't have the opportunity to be in this situation.

[smileyy]

srsly...he hasn't lost with Team USA in international competition, IIRC.

What the World Cup showed me is that international basketball is big-time enough that other countries will pull their stars from the World Cup too, exposing how thin their depth is compared to the depth of American talent.

[NY44]

Yes, he hasn't lost, but as Woj points out, nobody cares. No one here watches it. The players the USA sends are at a level that they're not benefiting from the playing time at all and then injuries can happen i.e. Paul George. The only people really gaining from this set up is Coach K.

[GoMuskies]

People cared when we lost.

[fellahmuskie]

Anything that bashes Mike Krzyzewski is good in my book. Certainly a good if not great coach, but far too arrogant for my liking.

[fellahmuskie]

Also, I forget if Woj mentioned this in his article, but I think the system Jerry Colangelo has put in place for Team USA has made a big difference the last 10 years. Players are developed to an extent and more familiar with each other. Krzyzewski has done a great job, but I think a lot of USA's problems in the early 2000's had more to do with a lack of a national system than just coaching.

[xubrew]

Wow!! That is one WHINY article!!!

I don't really like Duke, but I don't hate them either. To say that I resent how overvalued they are is probably far too strong a word, but at the very least I am beyond perplexed by it.

Duke is good, but they're not NEARLY as good as they are consistently made out to be.

Over the past decade, Duke has made it past the Sweet Sixteen a grand total of twice. Now, to be fair, they did win a national title, but still. Several teams have outperformed them.

Duke is CONSTANTLY overseeded by the committee. This is evidenced by a lack of notable wins in road games, and by the fact that when they do make the Sweet Sixteen, they almost always have to sweat out an unranked team in the round of 32. If they were to actually receive the seed they deserve, they wouldn't even have as many Sweet Sixteen appearances over the past decade.

Last year, they lost to Mercer.

In 2013, I actually did think they were legit, at least at the end of the year.

2012, they lost to Lehigh

The year before that, they needed overtime to beat a blah Michigan team in the round of 32 in Duke's own backyard, and were then blown to bits by Arizona. Had they played anyone other than Michigan, they would have probably lost, but they were overseeded and got to play Michigan in a virtual home game.

2010, they did win it all.

2009, they barely beat Texas in the round of 32, and bare blown to bits by Villanova

2008, they beat Belmont by one point, and then lose to West Virginia rather handily in the round of 32

2007, they lose to VCU. Duke was a #6 seed that year. It's the only time they were probably seeded correctly


It's example after example after example. Those are just the NCAA Tournament examples. Not only are they never as good on paper as their ranking and/or seeding, they usually don't pass the eye test either. Duke doesn't really look like a top ten team when they're not playing at Cameron. The reason for that?? They usually aren't a top ten team. They're just that highly ranked for whatever reason. They get a good seed, a good location for the first/second rounds, and usually get paired up against lower level opponents that they often have to sweat out, and/or get beat by. That's a huge advantage that in most cases I don't think they earned, yet even with all that they still rarely get past the Sweet Sixteen.

So, yes, I think Duke is way overvalued, and I kind of do resent that. But, at the same time, I can hardly blame Duke for that. It's not their fault people always seem to think they're better than they actually are.

[Olsingledigit]

Anything that bashes Mike Krzyzewski is good in my book. Certainly a good if not great coach, but far too arrogant for my liking.

Funny that when Bobby Knight was in his coaching prime everyone thought Coach K was the humble former assistant. Once Knight's rose faded and Coach K went to the top of the heap he became known as "arrogant". Just sayin.

[nuts4xu]

I don't have any good feelings for Coach K or Duke. But he has done an outstanding job with USA basketball and very qualified to continue as long as he wants. He can coach them until his body starts breaking down and he can't coach anymore as far as I am concerned.

Duke gets a lot of favorable treatment and their reputation allows for certain privileges other teams don't get.

To begrudge them, reeks of jealousy. You don't like Coach K or Duke, then beat them....and beat them badly.

[xubrew]

I don't have any good feelings for Coach K or Duke. But he has done an outstanding job with USA basketball and very qualified to continue as long as he wants. He can coach them until his body starts breaking down and he can't coach anymore as far as I am concerned.

Duke gets a lot of favorable treatment and their reputation allows for certain privileges other teams don't get.

To begrudge them, reeks of jealousy. You don't like Coach K or Duke, then beat them....and beat them badly.

That's the nice thing about basketball. Being overrated can only do so much for you. Case and point....Duke only making it past the Sweet Sixteen twice in the past decade.

I agree completely about his being the head coach of USA basketball. That's something that we should be feeling good about. At the very least, it's something people should be indifferent to. The guy who wrote the article is whining that the United States won the FIBA championships, again, and Coach K is using that to his advantage. Ummmm......okay.

[QueensbridgeMF]

Kind of like back in the day when he was the only college coach with a national ad campaign and his Amex commercial would run constantly during bball games and especially during the tourney. In all walks of life the rich get richer.

[xubrew]

Kind of like back in the day when he was the only college coach with a national ad campaign and his Amex commercial would run constantly during bball games and especially during the tourney. In all walks of life the rich get richer.

I actually thought that was amusing. There were many years where they ran that commercial during the tournament long after Duke had been beaten.

[ammtd34]

Man, I hated that commercial. He sounded so smug. "I don't think of myself as a basketball coach. I think of myself as a leader who happens to coach basketball." Shut up.

But yeah, I don't care that he's the USA coach. That article would raise a valid point if we agreed not to react if/when we lose a tournament.

[fellahmuskie]

Funny that when Bobby Knight was in his coaching prime everyone thought Coach K was the humble former assistant. Once Knight's rose faded and Coach K went to the top of the heap he became known as "arrogant". Just sayin.

Oh, I know. There's lots of sides to Krzyzewski. I just didn't like his tone at the few press conferences I saw during the world cup. Seemed like it was all about him rather than the players.

[PMI]

Oh, I know. There's lots of sides to Krzyzewski. I just didn't like his tone at the few press conferences I saw during the world cup. Seemed like it was all about him rather than the players.

I think the most irritated I've ever been by Coach K (perhaps even edging out some of those epic Maryland games of the early 2000s) was watching his press conference after the refs helped him keep us out of our first Final Four ten years ago. First off, he was mispronouncing our name, but that wasn't the biggest deal in the world in 2004. The smug tone and subtly condescending backhanded compliments he gave our nice little program made me want to smack his rat face right off. But then he said something that, for reasons I probably can't fully articulate, just really chapped my ass. I wish I could remember the exact way he put it, but he mentioned how after they didn't play a great first half, Luol Deng went off on the team in the locker room, upset that he might miss his one and only chance at making it to a Final Four, a destination he seemed to suggest was Duke's birth right to reach. He talked about how impressed he was that young Deng, who undoubtably had some African in him at the time, refused to lose. I know that doesn't sound like anything at all on the surface, but it was just this awful undertone from him that our senior-laden team that was playing the hottest basketball in school history was just a nice story that reached its peak, because some one and done decided the Cinderella run was over. I admit that I was probably overreacting due to my intense fury over the loss, but I swear it was the snobbiest backhanded bullshit. In case it doesn't show, I'm no fan of Coach K.

[NY44]

Man, I hated that commercial. He sounded so smug. "I don't think of myself as a basketball coach. I think of myself as a leader who happens to coach basketball." Shut up.

But yeah, I don't care that he's the USA coach. That article would raise a valid point if we agreed not to react if/when we lose a tournament.

I might be missing something here. You guys say people get upset if we lose FIBA tournaments? The Olympics I understand, but FIBA?