Duke basketball: Mike Krzyzewski completes final duties as head coach

The tenure of Mike Krzyzewski as the Duke basketball head coach is officially over. 

The head coaching career of Mike Krzyzewski ended when the Duke basketball program lost in the Final Four against North Carolina, but his duties as the head coach have officially come to an end this weekend.

Duke’s 2021-22 campaign has officially ended as the team hosted its banquet on Thursday night in Cameron Indoor Stadium, marking the final event in which Coach K will appear as the head coach of the Blue Devils.

“For me, you made my final season one of the happiest that I’ve ever had. An unbelievable season,” Krzyzewski said to those gathered in Durham.

The Blue Devils were 32-7 (16-4 ACC) on the season but fell in Krzyzewski’s final game in Cameron Indoor Stadium to North Carolina, lost the ACC Tournament Championship Game to Virginia Tech, and had its season come to an end against the Tar Heels in the Final Four.

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“You guys were winners,” Krzyzewski continued.

Duke did win the regular-season conference championship, its first since 2010.

Paolo Banchero, Mark Williams, and Wendell Moore were given the Swett-Baylin Most Valuable Player Award while Moore also took home the Iron Duke Award, for most minutes played.

AJ Griffin, Trevor Keels, and Jeremy Roach were bestowed the Pagliuca Family Coach’s Award for their commitment and values to the squad as Theo John won the Glenn E. “Ted” Mann Award for his contribution to the team’s morale.

Jon Scheyer capped off the evening with a speech to the team and those in attendance, which felt like a passing of the torch to the new head coach.

Duke basketball program already transitioning to new leadership

The fingerprints of Mike Krzyzewski will always be on the Duke program, but Jon Scheyer has been hard at work since the season ended.

Scheyer has changed his biography on Twitter to read “Duke Men’s Basketball Head Coach.” And the program’s website has been updated to list the former player and longtime assistant as the head coach.

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Nolan Smith, a teammate of Scheyer at Duke and assistant coach under Krzyzewski, has left Durham to be an associate head coach at Louisville, and the new Blue Devil leader has promoted Amile Jefferson from the director of basketball operations to an assistant coaching role.

Mike Schrage, previously the head coach at Elon, has also been hired as a special assistant to the head coach.

A new era in Duke basketball has arrived, and one can only hope that it will be as successful as the previous 42 seasons.