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Coach’s Corner: Q&A with Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski
Mike Krzyzewski has coached the best basketball players on the planet, so when he hypes a player, you better listen.
All fall, Krzyzewski raved about his 6-11 freshman center, Jahlil Okafor. “There’s nobody like him,” he said back in September. He’s already acknowledged he expects Okafor’s stay in Durham to be short, and that Okafor will be among the top picks in the 2015 NBA draft.
Eight games into the season, Okafor is averaging 17.1 points per game and 7.6 rebounds per game. But it’s too simple to say Okafor alone is the reason for Duke’s 8-0 start and No. 2 ranking.
Look at the rest of the Blue Devils’ star-studded freshman class — from the athleticism of Justise Winslow to the second-half play of Tyus Jones. Throw in a group of veterans, led by senior Quinn Cook, comfortable taking on different and, at times, reduced roles to benefit the team.
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Coach K Debuts 10th Season of SiriusXM Show Oct. 23
Mike Krzyzewski, head coach of the Duke Blue Devils and the USA Basketball Men’s National Team, debuts the 10th season of his weekly SiriusXM show, “Basketball and Beyond with Coach K”, Thursday, October 23 (6:00 pm ET) on SiriusXM College Sports Nation, channel 91.
Coach K will be joined on the season premiere by Kansas Jayhawks head basketball coach Bill Self and Denver Nuggets/U.S. Men’s National Team forward Kenneth Faried. Throughout the season, a new edition of Basketball and Beyond will air every Thursday on SiriusXM College Sports Nation, which is available on satellite radios, on the SiriusXM Internet Radio App and at SiriusXM.com. Each show will also be available on SiriusXM On Demand.
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Mike Krzyzewski will receive AUSA’s George Catlett Marshall Medal
Coach Michael W. Krzyzewski, legendary head basketball coach at Duke University and a long-time supporter of our men and women in uniform and their families, will receive the 2014 George Catlett Marshall Medal, the highest award presented by the Association of the United States Army.
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Coach K Previews 2014-15 Season
Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski sat down with the Blue Devil Network for an exclusive interview on last week to discuss the Blue Devils preparation for the 2014-15 season. Duke will hold its first official team practice Friday, Oct. 3 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
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Coach K Hosts USA Basketball Special Aug. 4 on SiriusXM
Mike Krzyzewski, head coach of USA Men’s National Team and Duke Blue Devils, will preview 2014 USA Tour and FIBA World CupListeners will also hear from assistant coaches Jim Boeheim, Monty Williams and Tom Thibodeau, as well as players Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, Stephen Curry and Anthony Davis
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‘Coach K’ Proud Recipient of Lincoln Award
“Coach K” was in town to accept the Order of Lincoln Award at the Art Institute of Chicago from Gov. Pat Quinn. The Lincoln Award is the state’s highest and is presented to ”those from Illinois who have brought honor to the state with their achievements.”
Krzyzewski has helped mold some of the brightest basketball stars in the city’s recent history. He addressed Derrick Rose, the Simeon product who hopes to play for Team USA in the 2016 Olympics; Jabari Parker, a likely top-3 NBA draft pick from Simeon who’s leaving Duke after one season; and Jahlil Okafor, Whitney Young’s consensus No. 1 high school player in the country who will play for the Blue Devils in 2014-15.
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Coach K Reaches Milestone
At this point Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski has reached just about every coaching milestone there is, but Saturday afternoon’s 78-56 win over Florida brought yet another, as Coach K won his 900th game at Duke. In doing so, Krzyzewski became only the second coach in NCAA Division I history to record 900 wins at one school, joining Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim who has racked up all 937 of his wins with the Orange.
You can possess countless good qualities as an individual, but if you don”t have the courage to proceed, you may never see those qualities come into fruition. It takes courage to put what you believe to be best of you on the line, to test it, and to see how far it takes you. Courage means daring to do what you imagine.
- Coach KWhen you are winning, your commitment is never challenged. But loyalty and dedication during difficult times can be tough. When commitment doesn’t waver, that’s when you have the greatest chance of winning. You can never give up.
- Coach KWhen you care about someone or something, you show genuine concern for that person or thing, in good times or bad. When you care about one another and about your purpose, you are compelled to put your feelings into action. Care creates an atmosphere that breeds success and gives you the confidence to try again.
- Coach KYou have to adapt what you do based on who you are. In teaching, you must remember that no group or individual is the same as who you taught the day before, the year before, or the decade before. Your plan has to suit who you and your team are right now.
- Coach KAdversity can teach you more about yourself than any success, and overcoming an obstacle can sometimes feel even better than achieving an easy victory. Through adversity, you can discover things about your endurance, your ability to turn a negative into a positive, and your personal strength of heart.
- Coach KBelief can mean the difference between a fear of failure and the courage to try. On a team or in a family, belief makes each individual stronger and also fortifies the group as a whole. The basis of belief is in individual relationships.
- Coach KEffective teamwork begins and ends with communication. Communication does not always occur naturally, and must be taught and practiced in order to bring everyone together as one. The most crucial element of communicating is telling the truth.
- Coach KWe win and we lose together. Handling the responsibility for wins and losses together removes the burden from one individual’s shoulders and distributes it among each member of the team. That atmosphere is conducive to high-level performance and places you and your team in the position to be bold and unafraid, and if you should lose, you are not alone.
- Coach KNo matter how successful you believe yourself to be, you can never feel as if you’ve reached the absolute pinnacle. There are always new and wonderful challenges out there, and part of maintaining success is knowing when you need to accept them.
- Coach KTake care not to allow one aspect of your life to so consume you that you neglect the others. Balance can put things in perspective, can bring you joy even when you are down, and can allow you to be at your best in all aspects of your life.
- Coach K