Duke basketball: Soon end to one-and-done may end Coach K's run

With the commitment last week from likely another Duke basketball one-and-done, one starts to wonder what will challenge the mind of the program’s iconic leader after this era is done.

Counting the six incoming freshmen, 63 of the 185 lettermen to have laced ’em up for Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski since his inaugural 1980-81 season will have played on at least one team between the 2010-11 and 2019-20 seasons.

In other words, soon more than a third of the Blue Devils Krzyzewski has coached will have been in Durham during the past quarter of his tenure. One-and-done is the one-and-only reason why.

And one-and-done has done one thing exceedingly well: add to what Coach K knows by keeping him on his toes.

Ever since Kyrie Irving sparked the era in Durham, the game’s winningest coach has had to get to know more players than any other college or professional coach (except for maybe John Calipari, but this Duke writer couldn’t stomach thumbing through Kentucky’s media guide to find out for sure).

Another sharpening tool for Krzyzewski’s aging-but-not-yet-showing mind as of late must be the increased quantity of new X’s and O’s running through his mind — a result of the high turnover rate — when scheming of ways to get the most out of each reloaded squad.

He does all this while also having to consider what is best for the looming NBA careers of his best players (almost entirely freshmen in recent years).

And he’s done the one-and-done route in impressive fashion — despite what Duke basketball critics would like for us to believe.

ALSO READ: Duke mocks critics by finishing as decade’s best

Since 2011, the Blue Devils have stuck it to naysayers by winning a national championship and three conference titles. Add to that the fact the Duke basketball program has compiled more total wins this decade (299) than any other program in the ACC (easily the nation’s best conference across the past three decades).

Beginning with Irving going No. 1 overall at the 2011 NBA Draft, Coach K has now produced 20 first-round picks this decade, one shy of his combined total from his previous 30 years.

He’s challenged his mind by finding a fresh way to amplify Duke’s name. (Remember, the more five-star Blue Devils to end up in the NBA — even if they only stay in town one year — equates to more active salesmen out there building #TheBrotherhood brand, leading to more phenoms landing in Durham.)

ALSO READ: Five Duke streaks in jeopardy at next year’s draft

Furthermore, in order to annually amass enough recruits to replace mass departures of talent after each season, the legend and his cohorts have to spend more time on the recruiting trail while always trying to think up new strategies to best Calipari and the rest of their toughest competitors.

True, taking into account the GOAT basketball mind’s genius ability to adapt to new trends and generations, Coach K wouldn’t likely have any problem adjusting to the end of the one-and-done rule (likely to come in time for the graduation of the 2022 high school class).

Let’s assume he stays one more season after the rule ends (2022-23).

At that point, he may view his everyday tasks, which would be more like taking a step back to his first 30 seasons at Duke than moving forward, a bit too pedestrian for his liking.

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At that point, the most difficult aspect of his job would be convincing college-bound recruits — far more will be multi-year players since the cream of each class will start bypassing college altogether — that he will be around for their entire time as Duke basketball players.

Important note: No matter when Krzyzewski plans to retire, in order not to crush his chances at landing the best college-bound recruits, putting up a facade by saying he has no plans to hang it up will continue to be in his best interest until his last day in office.

And then there’s this: if he does, in fact, stick around until at least the end of the 2022-23 season, he’ll be 76 — older than approximately 99.9 percent of his active coaching peers — and his incoming walk-on freshman grandson, Michael Savarino, will have just completed his four seasons playing for his “Papi.”

And of ultra importance, by the end of that season, Coach K would all but assure his name staying atop the all-time wins list for decades to come.

ALSO READ: Roy Williams could surpass Mike Krzyzewski in wins

Fat chance he stays past that season.

Therefore, as Duke basketball fans, though many of us pine for the return of the good old days when we had a chance to fully get to know the top players by watching them for several seasons, we should embrace and thank guys like Jalen Johnson — the five-star 2020 small forward who on Thursday became the latest expected one-and-done to pledge his allegiance to Coach K — for two reasons:

As laid out at the beginning of this article, the natural effect of mass one-and-done Duke stars is an increase to the number of Blue Devils we as fans have the privilege to get to know at all.
As Krzyzewski made clear through his more than a decade as Team USA’s head honcho and his coaching of 17 one-and-done players this decade, nothing motivates him more than overseeing the growth of the game’s most elite talents and finding ways for such studs to coexist on the same team.

ALSO READ: Duke staff bags recruits with bags of family promises

Will he become a full-time retiree/gardener once he no longer has the opportunity to coach the Zions and Kyries of the world?

A safe bet is he will.

Hopefully, though, by the middle of next decade, he forces the headline of this Ball Durham article to appear as a tweet from @OldTakesExposed.

However, for that to happen, the NCAA may first have to change the rule disallowing players to redshirt more than one year; that way, Savarino can redshirt every season — while begging his mom’s dad to keep coaching him — as he pursues several master degrees and doctorates at Duke.

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By doing so, Savarino can become old enough and wise enough to keep some of Coach K’s superior genes on the sideline — without interruption — for decades to come by succeeding Papi as the next head coach for the Blue Devils.

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Duke basketball: Soon end to one-and-done may end Coach K’s run

By Matt Giles | Jul 7, 2019

With the commitment last week from likely another Duke basketball one-and-done, one starts to wonder what will challenge the mind of the program’s iconic leader after this era is done.

More from Ball Durham