Hey, did you hear?
Mike Krzyzewski, the famed head basketball coach at Duke and the all-time winningest coach in college basketball history is coaching in the Final Four this weekend in his final season before retiring. It could be a storybook tale if he were to win it all before riding into the sunset.
Now that you’re caught up with the news I’m sure you weren’t aware of, let’s take a moment to discuss Krzyzewski putting the NCAA on-blast Friday ahead of the Final Four.
Krzyzewski met the media ahead of Duke’s Final Four showdown with rival North Carolina and was asked about the current system in college basketball. Let’s just say that Coach K
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50 winningest coaches in men’s college basketball history
sounded like a man that isn’t going to miss the business side of the job.
Current structure does not work
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“I don’t understand. I’m getting out of it. It’s crazy to me,” Krzyzewski said. “The structure we have now does not work…This is a time not to look at knits and bits. It’s a time to look at the whole thing. I think we’re all frustrated. And that’s good because if you’re frustrated it means then all constituents want change.”
Need to anticipate change
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“It’s time to come up with an organization that has not been able to adapt. And so this time is to catch up on all the things we didn’t adapt to but to form an organization that can anticipate change, can forward look and say these things might happen.”
Personnel changes are needed
Credit: Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports
“I’m not blasting anybody. I’m saying, ‘Come on. Do this the right way.’ I don’t see it happening the right way,” Krzyzewski said. “I would take a look at the organization, who’s on that transformational committee. I think there are more compliance people on it. Nothing against compliance people. That’s part of what we do.”
What needs changed first
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“The thing that I would recommend is that this is a transformational time for college athletics,” Krzyzewski said. “When you transform, the main thing you transform is structure, organization. I hear all these things that they’re coming out with all the compliance stuff. That should come after structure.”
Organize college basketball like the College Football Playoff?
(AP Photo/Ben McKeown)
“It’s a time to look at and see: Do you do something like football and they’re under one roof? Do you organize men and women’s basketball under another roof? Do you do that in different segments of the NCAA? Do you have different houses, not try to put everyone in one house? Do you have leadership groups for each of those houses? Do they have the autonomy then to handle situations at that level that never gets to the big house?”
Absent congressmen concerns
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“The only way do it: You have to listen to people on the ground,” he said. “Otherwise, you have absent congressmen who don’t know what they’re doing.”
Thoughts
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What I have found myself disliking about Krzyzewski, and he’s far from the only one who does this, but is that he has made literally tens of millions of dollars because of the athletes he’s coached but has seemed to be uncomfortable with the players getting compensated in any way.
However, I’m with him on the structure of college basketball not being good right now.
For as great as the NCAA Tournament is each year, is the amount of names going into the transfer portal this off-season a good thing? Players deserve rights, no doubt about it, but I’m smart enough to know that players get the tires kicked on them from other programs before they actually enter the portal, too.
And I’m fully on board with players getting compensated for their name and images likeness, the regulation of it any sport certainly requires to be tweaked.
I don’t know if it’s in as bad of shape as Krzyzewski leads on but I’m certainly on board with the idea that changes need to be made.
Related: College basketball’s 50 winningest coaches of all-time
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