Duke basketball: Five reasons Coach K needs to lighten up

2. Coach K needs to start standing more often because his sitting puts Duke at a disadvantage

Up until four minutes to play in regulation against Stephen F. Austin, Duke basketball assistant coaches Jon Scheyer, Nate James, and Chris Carrawell mirrored their mentor’s apathetic appearance, almost as if they all didn’t realize the zombie look would rub off on their players.

Meanwhile, on the visitors’ bench, the staff members and players were on the edge of their seats throughout, mirroring the emotions of Lumberjacks coach Kyle Keller, who paced up and down the sideline nearly every second with laser focus, obvious optimism, and a something-big-about-to-happen skip to his step.

And such a stark contrast between coaching staffs during Duke games has become increasingly common across the past few years. Seriously, what’s the deal? Why so serious? Why do Coach K and his gang so often either look like they are at court or like they need a pillow and blanket?

Wake up! Well, they finally did after Stephen F. Austin grabbed the lead with 4:09 to play in regulation. By then, though, the energy gap was nearly impossible for Duke to make up.

Nevertheless, after the game, Coach K opted to throw all of his players under the bus for their lack of fight:

"“We did not respond well to winning at New York [last week], and no matter what we said to our team, my feeling is they thought they were going to win. I’m not going to say they thought it was going to be easy because nothing is ever easy, but they just assume you’re going to win instead of being in a fight to win…We didn’t respond at timeouts or halftime to a different level of emotion and we lost. It’s a very difficult loss, but if we would have won, we would not have been deserving of winning.”"

Wrong, Coach K. The players would have deserved credit for overcoming their coaches’ combined lack of emotion. It’s the Duke basketball staff who would have been undeserving of any praise.

Besides providing a show of emotion, though, having a coach constantly pace the sideline can be intimidating to the opposing players and disruptive to their flow as well. Furthermore, it makes the coach more visible when giving his own players instructions during live action. On top of all that, the presence of a standing head coach keeps refs in check — something Coach K used to be so much better at.

Another thing Coach K used to be better at was encouraging a never-let-up Duke basketball mentality…