Pearls of wisdom from coach K and coach Scheyer...
-
Late in games this season, Coach K has put the ball in his freshman point guard’s hands and told his bigs to set ball screens and let Jones go to work. That’s how he’d make the go-ahead three with just over four minutes left and the dagger three that put the Badgers away.
“Throughout the season, when it’s gotten to late-game situations, we’ve gone to him, and he’s made the right play,” Scheyer said. “So tonight was going to be no different for us. What he did to come through, I don’t know how many people there were tonight—60,000 or 70,000—you would think there was five people the way Tyus was. He lives for those moments, and he put us on his back.”
Okafor, the best player on the roster, sat and watched most of the comeback saddled with four fouls.
Scheyer and assistant coach Jeff Capel could see the hurt on his face. Okafor was ready to take the blame if Duke lost.
“You’re going to win the game for us,” Scheyer told him. “You’re going to win the game for us.”
Okafor came back in with 3:22 left on the clock and his team ahead by one point, and eight seconds later he was spinning around Kaminsky and putting Duke ahead by three. Next possession he followed a Winslow miss and put Duke up five.
“He capped it off for us,” Scheyer said. “Other guys kept it going, but he capped it off for us. What he’s done as a freshman, I think it’s overlooked a little bit, because he’s put us on his back so many times and he did the same thing tonight at the end.”
-
@jayhawk-007 I CANT STAND GARGAMEL!!! That SOB held a team USA practice during our late night in which Tyus and Okafer we set to attend. Gargamel set up his little camp after HCBS announced Late night so The duo ended up going to Dook for a camp and then His late night. Landing those 2 would have put us right there in the final four! A lot of you could care less about the OAD’s but those 2 would have sealed the deal for us… I suppose Frankamp could have transferred b4 he did and that could have helped out too. That’s what we call a fuster cluck at my house!
-
Duke spokesman Michael Schoenfeld said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports: “Mike Krzyzewski is the most successful college basketball coach in history whose record and accomplishments will probably never be matched.”
Most successful? That can be argued… most wins but not most National Championships. No wonder so many people despise Duke. What about Wooden?
-
Well, we have been crowing about overtaking KY for the most total wins, and discounting the response about # of titles. Should people despise us?
-
@mayjay said in Pearls of wisdom from coach K and coach Scheyer...:
Well, we have been crowing about overtaking KY for the most total wins, and discounting the response about # of titles. Should people despise us?
They pretty much do.
-
@drgnslayr Winning 5 titles in the modern era of the NCAA Tournament (1985 when the field expanded to 64) could definitely be argued as more impressive than what Wooden had to do when only conference champs made the tournament. Some of those USC teams from that era finished in the top 5 and missed the NCAA Tournament because of that rule. Winning 6/7 games in Coach K’s era vs. winning 4 games in Woodens era.
-
@Texas-Hawk-10 One could argue, but I personally don’t think it’s winning argument. Not to diminish 5 titles over 40+ years (his first 5 at Duke were before the tournament expanded) for K. But compared to Wooden’s 10 titles in 12 years, 7 in a row? Sure, UCLA only needed to win 4 games, but that was true of all the higher seeds, and no one else could do it. Most remarkably, and in contrast to several Duke teams, Wooden did it without real depth of quality NBA talent. Yes, he did have (then) Alcindor and Walton for 6 of those titles, but how many other of his players on any one roster were real NBA players? The first title, it was Hazzard and Goodrich. The next one, just Goodrich. Alcindor didn’t have that much around him. Walton a bit more. But, they were great teams, greater than the sum of the parts, because they were so well coached.
Other great coaches during that era and lots of NBA talent on other teams - but almost no one else could win 4 in a row over a dozen year period…
-
You said it right… it can be argued. This comment didn’t leave that door open. I’m not going to discredit Coach K… but come on.
-
Ive hated the idea of coach K for so long i might not know what to do with myself once… ah f that, coach k who?
