It wasn’t really a controversy, it was more like a slight glance across the room, some raised eyebrows.
It was not a big deal, but people noticed when Mike Krzyzewski compared Duke’s succession to Auburn’s.
Remember when his retirement was announced? There were people around the ACC and college basketball who thought Coach K was on an ego trip, that he wanted a retirement tour.
That was always ludicrous because that has never been his style. Remember a while back when he explained why he took late timeouts
during road wins?
He told his team that he wanted them to look at the fans leave early, to know they caused that.
The mentality that wants to enjoy your pain is not looking for a farewell tour.
As things moved along, it was clear that Krzyzewski and his successor, Jon Scheyer, were executing a well-conceived plan.
That was not so much the case at Auburn.
It was generally understood that Steven Pearl would inherit father Bruce’s job, but as Coach K suggests here, Auburn’s transition was less structured than was Duke’s.
Pearl retired last fall just before practice began, thus giving the university no real alternative but to hire the younger Pearl.
Interestingly, this is exactly what happened at UNC when Dean Smith retired. He waited until the last possible moment, and UNC had no real choice but to hire assistant Bill Guthridge.
Guthridge finished with an 80-28 career record, and a Final Four in his first and third season, but his record declined from year-to-year, and the talent started to bottom out, too.
He was a good man and a super coach for aspiring young big men, but he was not a great head coach.
Smith, like Pearl and indeed Krzyzewski, wanted to control his succession, but Coach K’s approach was vastly better.
Here’s what Coach K said about Duke’s transition. We had not factored in the military part, and that’s interesting:
“No, no, it was different. Jon Scheyer is not my son. I don’t think. I went to West Point and I believe in succession. We had a carved-out succession plan where I knew I was going to retire a year in advance.
“I wanted that coach named that year in advance and I wanted him working with me so we could have continuity. Obviously, Jon was already working for me, and he was the perfect guy for it. So, we had it well planned out.”
Duke stuck the landing. We’ll see about Auburn soon.
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