Outlook for the season
I think they've shown really good attitudes about getting better, bigger, stronger, working on their individual skills. But where they're going to be is still up for grabs. I just think that they'll be in better places, in some respects by far, than they were even at the end of the year.
We wanted more from some of these kids than they were able to give. I think that they'll be able to give more next year.
I think we have a chance to be much more mature, more consistent and play at a higher level.
And we'll have to see how Luol [Deng] impacts, but I think he'll impact very, very well. So I'm excited about it, I'm really proud of our guys for last year because without our fans or people knowing it, we kept it at a real high level when we could have gotten nailed.
On a Lack of Energy from Fans in 2003
And without really the people around us being hungry, as hungry as I thought they would be better with having all these young kids in. I guess that's the price you pay with having the level of success we've had.
The thing that has separated Duke basketball from most others is that really the fans have been part of the team, not just have shared the team.
On discussions regarding Krzyzewskiville and the future of tenting at Duke
I think there's been a formation of a spirit committee. Usually, when you're looking at a team, a business, and there's something not right, the mistake that's made is to focus on one thing instead of looking at everything. I think this thing with Krzyzewskiville... it took on a different life where all of a sudden that was more important than the spirit in the arena. And that's what we tried to talk about in that meeting. We can come up with rules and they should be very limited, it's almost like the IRS was running Krzyzewskiville, or the NCAA was, it just [had too many rules]....
Why should we care if a kid wants to tent out there for three months?.... There's no magic about the time. I think part of it is really good, to be out there, it's like an initiation to a bad fraternity. 'You've got to swallow 18 goldfish and burn yourself, it's to an extreme.' And we don't want that. But we do want to show commitment, we want to have fun with it.
You want to get to know other kids. If we decide that 10 days is the appropriate amount of time, or five, or three. To me that's easy. And then, have a limited amount of rules. Now if somebody was out there for a certain amount of days, I'd be for that, so be it. But we'll come up with something that makes it equitable.
However, what's happened as a result of Krzyzewskiville taking on its own life is that maybe a kid who was in Kville the year before but doesn't want to do that again, you know, 'I've done that, been there done that. Well now I can't get into a game.' So there's not the continuity that should be there. A kid if he wants or she wants should be there for four years. So there's got to be a way, do we have an upper class lottery for 'x' amount of tickets?
Do we just limit the amount of tickets that tenters would get? To come up with ways of making sure that everybody has a chance to see a game, because most of our games, the seats aren't filled in the student section. Maryland and North Carolina, they're there.
And I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that people, even though they think just tenters might get in, are going to bust their butts to get in for Maryland, North Carolina. And they don't even know that there are seats available for the [other games]. The goal is to have a student in every seat, or standing up.... But there'll be some changes, and it'll be better, and hopefully it will be really good. I just want the kids to have fun. I think tenting is good, but it shouldn't go to an extreme.
On Drinking and the Ever-Changing Social Life at Duke
I just think that the overall atmosphere, as you take things away, or make changes, there has to be some new avenues open. You don't just keep closing avenues for. I think maybe 'fun' is the wrong word, because people would think 'it's frivolous or whatever.' I would rather look at it as 'how does a student get to know other students?' How do you interact as a student body? What means do you have to do that? And in my time at Duke, it's really been the most important thing, that separates Duke from those - when we're talking about the top 10 academically - we kind of had our own culture.
I'm not sure if we drank too much, I don't know all the stuff. But we usually beat the other schools with student interaction, and kids had fun from learning with other people.... I've always felt that's the main strength of Duke. I hear, and look, you have great academics, the point I tried to make to the people at the reunion, was I asked them a question: How many of you are doing your majors? They laughed! I didn't expect that. I knew that not many of them were, but they laughed! And I said, so apparently not many. Any of you? And they still laughed. And I said I think you are using your major, because you all majored in people, in getting to know people.
You had fun, you interacted, and the things that you're doing, you used your education to develop a thought process of being an educated adult where you can accumulate knowledge and get knowledge and form a decision, and the thing that separated Duke from other schools and other people was that you really knew how to communicate with another person. That's what that's all about it. If it's not kegs, then it has to be something else.
I can tell you that I have seen this campus be so fun, and where kids got to know everybody because they walked from one thing to the other. I know you have the potential of people overdrinking and people getting sick, and I don't know the complete solution, but there's a lot of good about that.
There is a lot of, becuse somebody who lives on Wannamaker got to meet somebody who lives somewhere else, and they joked and they partied, and now in order to do something everything is so regulated. Now there were some extremes, no questions about it.
You know what? There still are extremes. And the extremes are happening off campus, or before you ever go off campus, people are doing alternative stuff of 10 straight shots, instead of drinking a gallon of beer.
Are both of those good? Probably not. 10 straight shots is worse, I think. They're getting a quick high. Are we to think...no matter what rules you put in, the freedom the independence that a youngster has in college, and the environment that they're placed on has a huge impact on who you are going to become. And if we start this thing about quick highs, and then you have to go someplace off, to me that's really dangerous.
On How the Issues with Social Life Have Effected Tenting and School Spirit
Okay, Coach K, then what do you do? Well, I'm not sure exactly, but I'd like to talk to students more about it. Like the reunion people, they had kids and they had a lot of fun, and they got a great degree... I hear from students a lot that 'it's changed, it's changed', and I see it seeping into like Krzyzewskiville, but when I see it really going well in Cameron I say 'these kids still want to have fun. they're great kids. How can we do something to help in that regard?'
If I was in charge of all that, I'd like to get more input. But I have to remember my day job and I still have to coach the basketball team, but it's not like I haven't heard it from students.
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