Mike Krzyzewski on Perceived Recruiting Advantages for Coaching Team USA: Winning Is Only Advantage
ByMike Krzyzewski is a highly successful basketball coach, whether it's with the Duke Blue Devils or Team USA, and he is not sorry for the advantage winning gives him.
Anyone who has rooted against Coach K and Duke (most of the nation) has at least thought what Adrian Wojnarowski opined in a column for Yahoo Sports, that coaching the Men's National Basketball Team only benefits Krzyzewski. Wojnarowski argued that coaching handful of the NBA's best All-Stars only makes one the best college basketball coaches of all time look that much better.
Most of Krzyzewski's news conference Thursday focused on the subject, especially since coaching Team USA gives the coach access to the national U-19 team. One of Krzyzewski's colleagues, Kentucky head basketball coach John Calipari, had similar concerns.
"Two days in nine years," Krzyzewski said in the news conference, according to USA Today. "There's a selection committee of college coaches who select these teams. Jim Boeheim has headed that for 10 years. In the 10 years he's done that, probably every time he's done a tryout, he's been there three or four days with other members of the selection committee who are college coaches."
Krzyzewski also pointed out that Florida coach Billy Donovan actually coaches the U-19 national team and does not get singled out for having an unfair advantage. Coach K also argued that he gives up "50 days of his summer" to coach Team USA in the FIBA World Cup and Summer Olympics, which stagger themselves to be two years apart from one another.
As College Spun noted, Calipari coached the Dominican Republic national team from 2011-2012 and wound up with a commitment from Karl Towns in 2014. Towns was the number one recruit in his class and played for the D.R. when Calipari coached.
Jim Boeheim, another all-time great and Syracuse's coach, is on the sidelines next to Krzyzewski as an assistant, but also does not get singled out. Boeheim told Syracuse.com he does not believe coaching a bunch of NBA All-Stars gives the recruiting advantage some people think it does.
What does give coaches an advantage is winning and no NCAA Division I basketball coaches have won more games than Krzyzewski.
"You think that's why they went to Duke?" Boeheim said. "Because Mike talked to them for five minutes? That's a joke. Duke got better classes before he was a national coach than he is now. This last class is good. Before he started he had several top classes. Duke has been getting top players a long time. That can be proven."
