Mike Krzyzewski didn’t just lose his on-court captain in the offseason with Grayson Allen’s graduation. He also lost his most dependable leader on the bench in Jeff Capel, giving his coaching staff a new look this year as well.
Duke’s former associate head coach is now in charge of his own ACC program at Pittsburgh, and though the apparent effect on the Blue Devils’ recruiting success has been well-documented, it has created a different dynamic in practices and games as well. Jon Scheyer and Nate James were both promoted to associate head coaches, and Krzyzewski hired Chris Carrawell away from former Duke point guard Steve Wojciechowski’s staff at Marquette to fill Capel’s vacancy.
“[Scheyer and James] are more vocal than they were last year for sure, and it’s kind of more of a three-headed attack than it was last year, which is neither better nor worse,” junior captain Javin DeLaurier said. “We miss Coach Capel obviously and we wish him all the luck in the world at Pitt, except when we play them, but C-Well’s come in and he’s doing a great job.”
Capel served as the clear second-in-command under Krzyzewski after Wojciechowski and Chris Collins both departed for head coaching jobs, even taking Krzyzewski’s spot in the head coach’s chair on several occasions when he had to miss games due to illness or back surgery in recent years. Coach K often credited his top lieutenant for suggesting in-game tactical adjustments, including the shift to a 3-2 zone to contain Iona in the opening round of last year’s NCAA tournament.
To fill that void, Scheyer, James and Carrawell—all former Blue Devil captains in their own right—have teamed up quickly to bring instant chemistry to the huddle. Nolan Smith’s promotion to the director of basketball operations job also gives him more freedom to help with recruiting on campus and break down film with players, though he is still not allowed to do any on-court coaching.
“C-Well, he’s got that personality. He gets it. He can work a room pretty well,” Krzyzewski said. “It’s been a pretty smooth transition to be quite frank. I knew Nate and C-Well were like brothers, but I didn’t realize that Nolan and Jon were such good friends with C-Well, and part of that has to do with the [K Academy] fantasy camp, and they’ve gotten to know one another well before this.”
Duke’s coaching staff has not been this inexperienced since the early 2000s, when Collins, Wojciechowski and Johnny Dawkins all worked under Krzyzewski relatively fresh out of their playing careers. That group stuck together for seven full seasons before Dawkins left to take the head job at Stanford.
Collins and Wojciechowski followed him into the head coaching ranks a few years later, ushering in a new generation of coaches to learn under Krzyzewski as more former Blue Devils enter the conversation to become his eventual successor in Durham.
Of the current group on Duke’s bench, Scheyer is the most well-respected as a potential head coach in the near future. At age 31, he has already shown a knack for recruiting and mentoring guards after leading the Blue Devils to the 2010 national championship as a senior captain and starting point guard.
James has been with Duke’s program the longest, working his way up for the last 11 in various roles. He was the assistant strength and conditioning coach for a season before becoming an assistant coach in 2008, but he dropped down to special assistant in 2011 to make room for Capel on the staff. The former Blue Devil captain regained an assistant coaching position in 2013 when Collins left for Northwestern. He is now primarily responsible for coaching Duke’s frontcourt players.
Carrawell is finding his tactical niche under Scheyer and James in his first season, but players agree that he has made a fast impression, and his experience as a player under Krzyzewski has helped him hit the ground running.
“He brings a lot of energy and guys love playing for him,” DeLaurier said. “There’s definitely a difference, just a difference in personalities, but the coaching staff is still fantastic.”
The 2000 ACC Player of the Year, Carrawell, never expected to become a coach—he said his idol as a kid was Hall of Famer Jerry West when he was the general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers and envisioned a future career in a professional front office. But an opportunity to become a graduate assistant at Duke arose after his overseas playing career ended, and he eventually landed as an NBA G League assistant for three years before joining Wojciechowski’s staff.
“You find yourself getting into coaching, find yourself liking it and now you’re at this moment and at this point where it comes full circle and you get a chance to work for the greatest coach ever,” Carrawell said in May shortly after he was hired. “Sometimes the way the world works, it’s crazy.”
Editor's note: This article is one of many in The Chronicle's men's basketball season preview. Find the rest here.
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