No one goes to 10 Final Fours in 19 years without a gift of foresightedness, but Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski's ability even trumps that of what one might expect of someone with that level of success. What Krzyzewski understands far better than any other current coach are the institutional forces of the NCAA tournament that separate the good regular season teams that make deep runs in the tournament from those that lose to overachieving mid-major universities.
The way the tournament is setup--a one and done system that requires only six victories to win a national championship--lends perfectly to quick teams that can skate around bigger and more physical players.
However, in conference tournaments where teams play as many as four games in as many days, the mantra is true that quick players slow down with fatigue but tall players are always tall. In these instances big and bulky teams can wear down their pesky opponents.
In the NCAA tournament, teams always have at least one day of rest between games. This negates much of the advantage that tall players have with always being tall and quick players getting slower with fatigue. Tim Duncan's Wake Forest squads are a perfect example of this phenomenon. The most dominating big man in the last 10 years of college basketball led his teams to back-to-back ACC tournament championships during some of the most competitive years in conference history, but the two-time National Player of the Year never brought his team to a Final Four.
A more recent example are the defensive-minded Pittsburgh teams that are known for their slow offensive tempo that have been dominant in the regular season but have failed to advance to even an Elite Eight.
For this reason, Krzyzewski has always relied on guard play to fuel his team. These are the types of teams that fare well in tournament conditions, and these are the types of teams he produces.
When recruiting, Krzyzewski is not thinking of who will be the best players, but who will be the best tournament players.
A glaring counterargument to my claim is the back-to-back National Championships won by Duke while led by 6-foot-10 center Christian Laettner. It is true that those squads were highlighted by the current Washington Wizard, but those teams also included the likes of Bobby Hurley, Thomas Hill and Grant Hill. It was the ability of those players to knife and pretzel through opponents that truly allowed the Blue Devils to win championships. Having Laettner as a big man was just a giant luxury, and perhaps the reason Duke is the only back-to-back champion in the modern history of college basketball.
Some criticize the Krzyzewski squads of late for their soft interior play and inability to rebound. This is an inadequate critique. Rebounding and post play are extremely important in the regular season. They are an important factor in determining conference tournament champions, and are two biggest components of creating an NBA championship team that does not include Michael Jordan, as Shaquille O'Neal and Tim Duncan have shown by winning the last five World Championships.
But in the NCAA tournament, post play and rebounding only need to be sound to win games for teams with good guards. One might point to the 2002 Duke team that fell in the Sweet 16 to Indiana after being dominated by Jared Jefferies in the paint as evidence for the falsity of this theory. But that Blue Devil squad had already won a National Championship, and Krzyzewski has only recently publicly admitted that that team was less hungry than the current Dukies are. If you don't want to win badly, you're not going to win a National Championship. Krzyzewski, the best architect of Final Four squads, constructs his team with dominant guards and solid post players because that's what wins tournament games. Just look at the 2004 Blue Devils' tournament run. Both Xavier and Illinois outrebounded Duke, but through superior and quicker guard play, Duke prevailed to yet another Final Four.
The same can be seen from other recent Final Four squads. Connecticut's best player is center Emeka Okarfor, but because of his injury, the Huskies' guards are the reason they are back in the Final Four. Oklahoma State is led by their guards, picking up solid contributions from their interior players. The same can be said of Georgia Tech's team this year. In regards to last season, does anyone legitimately think Syracuse had a better inside game than the Nick Collison-led Jayhawk squad? The Orangemen won their first national title by outquicking the slower Kansas players, just as every champion in recent history has done.
Criticize Krzyzewski all you want for not developing centers. His formula of combining dominant guards with solid post players is the reason why every Duke nucleus of players in recent years--Brand (quickest post player of his era), Langdon and Avery; Battier, Williams, Dunleavy and Boozer squads; Duhon, Redick, Shelden Williams and Daniel Ewing--have all reached at least one Final Four.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.