Head coach Mike Krzyzewski called in to ESPN Radio yesterday to talk about the Final Four, Duke's upcoming trip to China and the topic that has dominated many discussions lately—Jalen Rose's comments on race and Duke recruiting.
Krzyzewski, who talked to former Duke guard and current ESPN announcer Jay Williams during the interview, was bullish on Butler's chances to win the national championship this year. (Krzyzewski said last year that he thought Butler would be the favorites in 2011.)
"I think it's unique as anything that has happened in the NCAA Tournament. For Butler—in a so-called mid-major conference—to play so well to and make the NCAA championship game last year and have a chance to win it this year is incredible.... I think they have a heckuva chance to win the whole thing."
Krzyzewski also revealed that Duke's trip to China in August will involve games played against the junior national team. The Chronicle originally reported that the trip would happen, however the contestants the Blue Devils will play was unknown at the time that article was written.
"For our school, it's a great opportunity. We'll be playing the junior national team in China, three in three cities, then we'll go to Dubai. We have a young team, and we'll get a chance to try out some stuff."
Finally, the coach addressed the topic of race and the Fab Five documentary by first saying he didn't want to comment on the matter—and then giving some words that at least appeared to be a comment on the matter.
"Obviously, that was a poor choice of words and very insulting to everyone here at Duke but especially, not just our African-American players, but any African-American students. When you judge within a race, you start judging, like you put categories as to who you are. I think that's just the wrong thing to do.
"We were very successful against them and, to be quite frank with you, we recruited Chris Webber. I didn't recruit Jalen Rose because we had Grant Hill and I'm happy with that. We didn't look at the other, Juwan Howard [because] we knew he wasn't going to come to Duke. The other two kids we didn't think were the caliber that could play as well as Thomas Hill and Brian Davis and Billy McCaffery. They're good kids. They were good kids.
"They had a heck of a run but, they didn't leave anything, they didn't establish anything there. The guys that I had established something that Jay Williams continued to do 10 years later -- the standards of what it meant to be a Duke basketball player."
In other news, it was announced yesterday that Jalen Rose currently faces suspicion of drunken driving charges in Michigan.
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