Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski held his first press conference of the fall Thursday in which he addressed his time with Team USA, Duke's upcoming season, the Blue Devil freshman class and the recent criticisms lofted at USA Basketball and himself.
The Blue Devil freshman class of Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones, Justise Winslow and Grayson Allen is the top-ranked group in the Class of 2014. After the departure of Jabari Parker and Rodney Hood to the NBA, Duke will lean on its young players to produce early, with Okafor leading the way. Krzyzweski pointed toward the willingness of the upperclassmen to help the rookies' transition as a big help in getting them acclimated.
"This freshman class is just ahead maturity-wise. With our team right now, it's not sophomores, freshmen, juniors, seniors; They're Duke basketball players. The freshmen aren't freshmen, they're Duke basketball players. There's not that differentiation. That doesn't happen all the time, that doesn't happen most of the time. But with this group, it has and we saw that during the summer."
"Quinn Cook has been exceptional in how he's helped the freshmen, especially with [Tyus Jones], making sure he's comfortable. With [Jahlil Okafor], you'll see. He's good. He's accepted pretty much right away. Also, because there's nobody like him so there's [competition.] 'Well, okay, I can do what he can, I look like he does.' No you don't. He's a good guy and he shares the ball. The other two, Grayson and Justise, they're just ahead. Justise especially, physically. All four of those kids are just really good basketball players."
Junior forward Amile Jefferson is coming off hip surgery but, according to Krzyzewski, should be ready to go by the time the season rolls around. As has been noted in the past, Jefferson serves as the teams' emotional leader and will likely step in an even larger role with that this season, as Duke looks to get the most out of its talented freshman class.
"Amile is back to probably 95 percent. He doesn't have his explosion yet because he couldn't work out his legs because of the hip injury. But he's playing and I think by the time we start playing games, he'll regain that. Everybody else is healthy. Guys look good."
"Amile is our best on-the-court communicator. He talks well. He understands the game well. It's a huge plus. We actually didn't have it with our U.S. team [and] we haven't had it here in a while. I'm not saying he's Battier, but that's what Shane did. He communicated while it was going on and you didn't have to wait for a timeout. It's not just a point guard or somebody calling a play. Communicating feelings, the nature of the game, pushing somebody while the game's going on.... He has a huge role on this team."
Associate head coach Jeff Capel, a former Blue Devil guard from 1993-1997, joined Krzyzewski and Team USA at the World Cup despite their original plans to have Capel stay in Durham. Krzyzewski was thoroughly impressed with the job Capel did in Spain.
"I felt comfortable with how our guys were doing this summer here before we left and it gave me a lot more confidence. I have confidence in Jon and Nate, I just didn't know how far along the team was going to be. Jeff is just really a good coach. I said, 'I'm going to need you. You know me better than any of those guys.' We had a new staff. Obviously, Jim Boeheim and I are real close, but Tibbs and Monty, we just spent five days together the summer before so Jeff would've been the guy. And he was."
Following Team USA's gold medal game victory, Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski wrote a column in which he called for the NBA to pull its stars from the U.S. basketball program and accused Krzyzewski and Duke of benefitting directly in the recruiting phase of college basketball due to his involvement with the program. Krzyzewski fired back to all critics Thursday, claiming success will always attract top talent.
"Everybody can have an opinion on that. On Aug. 24, 2008, and the score is 91-89 in the gold medal game against Spain, if Kobe Bryant doesn't hit a couple shots, if Dwayne Wade doesn't make it, do you think I'd have an advantage? Because we would lose. The point I'm making is, anybody who wins or someone writes a great book or great article, somebody who wins a championship, they have an advantage. But it's advantage through accomplishment. The notoriety that you get from it is, there's a risk to that. You could lose. There's time that you give up. The fact that you win, if you gain an advantage through that, so be it. It's like someone wins a national championship. Kevin Ollie has an advantage recruiting this year because he won."
In Wojnarowski's column, he also suggested that the picture of Krzyzewski and Paul George embracing in the hospital was a possible photo op. Although Krzyzewski initially said he would not address specific columns written about him at the beginning of the press conference, he took the time at the conclusion of the conference to address those allegations.
“That was a really bad thing, to bring up Paul George. After he was injured, USA Basketball was in the trauma room—me, [Jerry Colangelo], a bunch of NBA people and whatever. There were too many people there, so they asked for only the family and the doctors. We went back. A few of the people from USA Basketball left that morning. I was staying with my family for a couple of days.I went back to the hospital the next day secretly. ESPN had cameras in front of the hospital. We were able to go through the back and go in. I spent a half hour with Paul, his mom, dad, two sisters, a couple of friends and his girlfriend. I did not take any pictures, I did not know a picture was taken. I think his sister took a picture. She tweeted it because it was an emotional scene. To say that I orchestrated that and used Paul George to show that I was a good guy is really wrong. If you want to think that, then you are a bad person. That was done secretly and for someone to put it out the other way, you’re really reaching.”
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