Q & A with Coach K

Duke men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski has experienced much success throughout his coaching career, but no period in his life has come close to the one he has entered into over the past four months. Sitting in his penthouse office on the sixth floor of the Schwartz-Butters building, Krzyzewski reminisced about his recent success, talked about his future in coaching, and sounded off on some of college basketball's most pressing issues in a one-on-one interview with Chronicle Sports Editor Craig Saperstein. Here are the highlights of this encounter:

The Past Four Months

CS: You've experienced an unprecedented amount of personal and professional success over the past four months. Does it get any better than this?

MK: No, it's the busiest time in my life. The last three months have been busier than any time in my life and it's all good things. One day, just fooling around, I was playing racquetball with Joe Alleva, our athletic director, and we played five games and he won. We were walking out and I said 'did you feel good about winning?' And he said, 'yeah,' because he wins a lot. And I said 'I want to know that I threw the game.' And he said 'what do you mean?' And I said 'things have been going so great and I know you have to lose in something, so I'd rather lose in a stinkin' racquetball game, than something that is big.'

That's kind of how I feel. It's almost been too good. It's neat that all those things have happened, but one downside of it is that we haven't had a chance to focus on any one of them. They just all kind of hit you at one time. I think we need to take a little bit of time before the start of the season and get caught up in all those different events even a little bit more.... It's been a lot. I feel very lucky, I'm very fortunate.

CS: How excited were you when you were notified about being elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame?

MK: To tell you the truth, I wasn't even thinking about it. It's tough to explain what's been happening the last couple of months--you just saw just a little microcosm of it. People think that now basketball season is over there's nothing to do, but in about four minutes, four things happen. That's happened like all the time. So I wasn't focused on it. I knew that I was being considered, I knew that the group of people to select from was a great group. Then, when it happened I was like 'Man, I'm going to be in the Hall of Fame.... It was a very deep feeling, because on a personal level, that's the highest honor.

I immediately thought, especially for me, as a coach you need to have great players, great teams. After a couple of minutes, I hoped that, after the word spread, that wherever all those guys were, that when they thought about it, they'd feel a part of it.... I felt that way when Coach [Bob] Knight was inducted as a former player and assistant. Being the first Duke person, I hope that's how the many great players and coaches that have been here would also feel a part of that, because they are.

In Jason's case, he might have gone No. 1 this year and he might go No. 1 any year. Jason's improvement each year has been huge.... Part of that has to do with things that you can't just teach physically--leadership, understanding game and other people, especially at his position. He's going to be the point guard, he's going to be the leader.... The climate for [Jason] to do that for us next year is great.

The Duke degree, not only for Jason, but for his family, is huge.... If he gave me other information that he didn't want to run that race, then I may have changed my opinion... At the end of next year, he'll leave. He's in both sessions of summer school, he's happy, he's learning, he's getting better...

Our world changes all the time. It's not a matter of whether we should only recruit a kid who's going to stay four years. Kids just don't know that when they come to Duke. All the kids who we recruited thought they were going to be here four years. But things change, just like they do for other students, and we need to come up with ways of helping them because they love Duke. They wouldn't be here unless they love Duke, so Jason has come up with this plan and it seems like a terrific plan.

CS: In last year's draft, Chris Carrawell was not selected until the second round and was cut by the Spurs in training camp. Why do you think that things didn't pan out for such a successful college player?

MK: I think he's good enough to play in the NBA. I was very disappointed where he was drafted, not who drafted him. I thought he was going to be a first-round [pick] and I got that feedback from a number of different people late in the first round who were going to pick from about 20 on. But the draft changed last year, especially with Morris Peterson, Mateen Cleaves, all of the guys like that were predicted to be picked earlier, but when they were picked further back, it added a new dimension into the Draft. All of the sudden, other players were opened up that people didn't expect to have....

Those things happen. However, he was picked by San Antonio and I think the fact that where he was picked negatively... impacted him. He didn't seize the moment with San Antonio because he had a chance to make it with San Antonio.... He didn't react as well to that so-called setback and not look at this next thing as an opportunity. He understands that now and hopefully he'll get in the league.

CS: Since you've been at Duke, you've had comparable success to UNC, but on average, your players have been less successful in the NBA than theirs? Why do you think this has occurred?

MK: First of all, we're supposed to win in college, so any guy who brings up what a guy does when he's 40 or whatever (trailing off).... We've had a lot of successful people in pro sports. I think we haven't had as many because, for many years, North Carolina had the most talent. We're getting that now. It's not a competition. That's something somebody brings up because we've won three national championships now. You do the best you can do with the group you have and we've had great kids who have been great college players.

A guy like Danny Ferry, he's had an amazing career. Now is he a Michael Jordan? No. We haven't had a guy like Michael Jordan or James Worthy or those guys. They've had incredible talent.... If that's the knock on us, we'll just have to live with it and try to win another national championship.

Next Season

CS: How excited are you about the upcoming year and what are some of your expectations?

MK: I think we'll be one of the teams that has a great shot at doing it. It's not so much coming off the national championship as it is the kids I'm coaching. I really love my players. Last year's team was as good as a group and was as fun of a year as we've ever had. And I haven't seen these kids change in a negative way as a result of the success, which can happen so much....

I'm also really excited about my staff. We've retained our structure and we have all great people. Johnny, Chris, Wojo--they're terrific people and coaches.

And I see each of my guys getting better.... Casey Sanders is doing his own thing this summer, Mike Dunleavy gained 20 pounds, all of them came to first-semester of summer school to get ahead and try to take some difficult courses that they might have had a problem doing well in during the school year. So there's a commitment that I see, and I haven't pushed that. I will push when I get them all together, but this is a chance to see individual investment. That's how I've tried to run our program over the years and thank goodness we've had great kids who flourish in that culture. And these kids are doing that.

CS: At times last season, Carlos Boozer was a dominant inside presence and at other times, he was almost a non-factor. How can the coaching staff and Carlos Boozer himself improve his consistency?

MK: I think overall he had a really good year. I think he had many more ups than downs. At the end of the last season, he was playing his best when he got hurt. The Wake Forest game was his best game. I think big guys have a different rate--they're not Elton Brand all the time.

The thing that I loved about Carlos is that he responded all the time to the things we said to him in meetings, especially my individual meetings with him. And then in the NCAA tournament, for him to come back that quickly and have that big of an impact... I mean, one month after he broke his foot, he had 12 points and 12 rebounds in the national championship game.

That's what we'd like to see Carlos build on for next year and those are the standards we will hold him to.... I think he'll respond. He's a real good kid. He's the youngest of all of the rising juniors even though he looks the oldest by far (laughter). We all fall into that. It's like 'he's got to be 25 or even 30, he should know that.' No he shouldn't. He's still learning a lot. I think he made a quantum leap in the second half to where he now understands completely what it takes to be a high level player and that's what we expect of him.

CS:Early last season, ESPN's Andy Katz reported that members of the Duke program believed it would be difficult to keep Carlos Boozer from bolting early to the NBA. What will be the criteria in considering whether Carlos should leave after this year?

MK: I think, first of all, I wouldn't necessarily quote Andy Katz (trailing off and laughing).... He's definitely a nice guy and everything. Kids today, even high school players, have peer pressure to say that they're going pro. It's kind of like being with a bunch of fellow students and you have a few beers and all of the sudden you start saying things that are a little extreme...

A lot of people ask me, 'are you going to recruit that kid because he did an interview and said he's going pro or that he could go pro?' If he's one of the top kids in the country, he almost has to say that to save face. And so in Carlos' case, he could leave at the end of his junior year and if that's the case, then that's the case. What we're doing with him academically is to try to put him in a position--not only him but any of the guys--that if they did that at the end of their junior year, then they're close to graduation.

This is not a state school, where you can have a lot of different degrees. It's Duke. You've got to be here. You have to put in a certain amount of time. We feel, though, that if a kid is here three years, then we can get him to graduate. Carlos is in summer school right now, he's taking at least one independent study in the second semester of summer school, so he'll be closer. Any kid who makes that commitment that long and is trying to get his degree, we're fully supportive of that.

The Future

CS: Having grown up in North Carolina, I can always remember the speculation leading up to every season as to when Dean Smith would retire. Now that you've passed your silver anniversary as a coach, this question has been transferred to you. What will be your criteria for retiring and is there any way to predict how soon it could happen?

MK: I've never been somebody who has set win goals. I've never saidsomething like, 'it would be really good this season if we won 22.' I've run my career in quite the same way. When I look back I say, 'wow I've been a head coach for 26 years and I'm starting my 22nd year at Duke.' I don't believe I'm that old, and part of it is because I feel young, I think I think young, hopefully with the maturity of an older person (laughter), and I'm around such great people and at such a great school. So my main criteria is if I don't feel a passion for what I'm doing--to do all the work that's necessary to maintain this program at the level that it's at--then I should leave.

I will not be one to hang on. I don't have any [goals] like 'I have to win this number of national championships, this number of games, this number of years before retirement.' I could coach a long time, that's my nature of criteria.

I do want to see positive change all the time for Duke. I think we need to work with Cameron. I'd like to keep on working for the major fundraising for our program so that when I do step down, this program is in the best possible shape it could be in....

There is going to be somebody else, this isn't going to be my program forever, although I'll love it forever. Somebody else will coach it, and I want to make sure that whoever coaches it after me will have the best opportunity to keep it at the level we have it. I'm getting to the end of my contract. I have two more years, but usually somebody in my position, you don't wait until two more years... so I'd like to do something where we even give more stability if possible. But I see myself coaching here, or coaching for awhile, hopefully here.

CS:When you finally do retire, you will have an enormous influence over who will be your successor. Will it be difficult for you to choose between 'keeping it in the family' or going outside the program to look for the best possible coach. If you decide to stay in the family, how hard will it be to choose between your former proteges?

MK: I think we've had enough people who have become great coaches from our program that if that's what those guys want, the choice should be from one of them. I don't think that should be my choice, because once I finally retire, it's no longer mine.

I would want to be a part of Duke University and help the basketball program, but I think you would have to give whoever takes over the freedom to be whoever he is. That's the decision of whoever the athletic director is at that time, whoever the president is, the Board of Trustees, it's their decision. I'd give my opinion, but that shouldn't be my choice. I think that would be wrong and I think it would put that person in a position where they would have to be beholden to me. That's not the way to do it.