Coach K: I Haven't Changed How I Recruit -- The NBA Has Changed

Duke coach has succeeded with four-year players and one-and-dones

Coach Mike Krzyzewski has been praised for his ability to change his approach to recruiting and building a team, which allowed his Duke teams to thrive with four-year players in the 1990s and 2000s and also with one-and dones in the last decade.

He doesn’t see it that way, however.

“I haven’t changed how I recruit,” he said on a conference call earlier this year. “What’s changed is the landscape for the kids that are being recruited. In other words, the NBA has changed. We still go after the same level, the same type of youngster. They become good. They’re already good. They become a little bit better, and then they go.”

With Coach K in his 70s, it would seem that his future would be a topic that recruits bring up—how long will he continue coaching at Duke?

“I’m never asked it, really, to be quite frank with you,” he said. “Hardly ever. I think they see how I coach and that I’m not just sitting on my butt. I’m still working at it. But if they did (ask), I would tell them I don't know, because that would be the honest answer. The main thing in all this is to be straightforward and honest. And then, the type of people we recruit, their questions are very substantive, in all aspects of the decision that they or their son is going to make.”

Krzyzewski continues to relate with young people and thinks that working at a college campus may help keep him feeling young.

“Whenever you’re working in an environment you love, it’s going to be a lot more enjoyable,” he said. “No matter what the stress of the job is, it’s going to be a lot better. I love Duke. I love the type of youngsters that Duke attracts. Anyone that’s been on a college campus, whether as a professor or a worker, understands each year is new and the fall is like a rebirth. There’s a lot of young life on every campus. I’ve been fortunate to spend the 45 years I’ve coached at two pretty good places that produce that.”