WRAL Sports Fan

WRALSportsFan

K Academy, Part 3: Coach K Gives His Ingredients For Success

Nov 13, 2003

DURHAM, N.C. — The Duke basketball team has been to nine of the last 18 Final Fours, winning three national championships.

How?

That is a question campers at the inaugural K Academy fantasy camp wanted an answer to.

First, the team has to have talent. But coach Mike Krzyzewski said other ingredients are needed to consistently produce a winner.

Teams change from year to year. Krzyzewski said he tries to create a culture that transfers from team to team.

"The thing I love the most in coaching," Krzyzewski said, "is to try to get a group of people to become one.

"There are five guys on a team. How do we get them to be a fist? How do we get them to go after it over and over again, every day?"

Krzyzewski said the first ingredient is communication.

"When we talk to one another, we look each other in the eye," he said, "and we tell each other the truth."

The next ingredient is players with good eyes.

"I like to recruit guys who have good eyes," Krzyzewski said. "Good eyes mean you have a good heart, and good eyes mean you are willing to give somebody part of your heart."

It all goes into building a trust, an atmosphere of complete belief. It is proof that preparing to succeed in college basketball is not all about physical training. There is mental work to do, and Coach K uses three tools to help teach the game: "You hear. You see. You do."

The K Academy campers saw those three points at work when Coach K presented them with the scouting report Duke had before playing Arizona in the 2001 national championship game.

"Their point guard is quick and athletic, and he is their main ball handler," assistant Duke coach Chris Collins said, assessing the opponents' strengths and weaknesses just as he would with the Duke team. "Do not let this kid outwork you.

"We need to try and wear him down because he's the guy . . . If we can take away the head of their team, we can really hurt this team."

Krzyzewski then added his own words of wisdom, just as he would with his own team.

"We're pressuring him, making him work," Krzyzewski said of the Arizona point guard Collins mentioned. "So, when he does get a shot, he has tired legs."

After hearing Collins' and Krzyzewski's coaching report, the K Academy campers watched tape of the Duke-Arizona game.

"Arenas can be a secondary ball handler," Collins said as the tape rolled, again offering up a scouting report.

Said Coach K: "This is where you have to come over and take a charge."

Now Collins again: "They want to run, and there is the charge we were talking about."

The final step includes demonstration and practice. So Krzyzewski took the campers back to the court.

"Once they get it, both these guys have to be played for the drive, and you're going to be playing them like this," Krzyzewski said, playing defense against Collins, "making sure you don't give up the middle."

From there, it is all up to executing the plan. Against Arizona, Duke did.

It was interesting to see how effective the Arizona scouting report was, the little things Duke used to counter the Wildcats.

So what were the games like at the K Academy? A mixture of good, bad and hopeless.

In the end, one team was undefeated. Tune in Friday night at 11 for some entertaining basketball.

• Reporter: Jeff Gravley
• Photographer: Jay Jennings
• Web Editor: Paul Ensslin