Duke basketball: Five reasons Coach K needs to lighten up

4. Coach K needs to stop coming off as so pessimistic because it seems to affect his decisions

Again, let’s address Mike Krzyzewski’s statement from two slides back about his players not handling recent success well and their assuming they would win on Tuesday night without having to fight. That quote sure sounds as if Coach K was expecting the worst all along from his players against Stephen F. Austin.

Therefore, it sure sounds as if Coach K was the one with the poor attitude coming in. And based on his stunned looks during timeouts as he confused his players with what appeared to be careless, sloppy, hurried chicken scratch on his clipboard — whatever he frantically scribbled, which the TV cameras frequently showed during the closing minutes of regulation, sure didn’t look at all like the plays the team ended up running coming out of said timeout huddles.

And his frequent, unnecessary, and consistently ill-advised substitutions in the closing minutes of overtime — as referenced a few slide backs in regards to Vernon Carey Jr. inexplicably coming out — made it seem like his pessimism about his players’ abilities led to his overthinking his decisions at every stoppage of play.

It was concerning, to say the least. It certainly didn’t hurt the argument of his countless critics who claim his play-calling and decision-making in tight games has become abysmal in recent years.

Also concerning, of course, is the fact that despite his own glaring shortcomings and down-in-the-dumps display throughout the loss, not once throughout the postgame quotes GoDuke.com published did Coach K shoulder any blame. Instead, though he often used the word “we,” he kept following up that word with “played,” which he did not do, implying his definition of “we” is actually “they” — referring to his young players while leaving himself out of the equation.

Shockingly, these player-bashing quotes came from a legend who seems to have become obsessed during this one-and-done era with spreading the “cool” player-friendly image of himself and the program.

And this brings us to the final reason Coach K seems to need to go ahead and get his act together as a leader before his outward behavior has lasting consequences…