Mike Krzyzewski
Mike Krzyzewski
Michael William Krzyzewskiis an American college basketball coach and former player. Since 1980, he has served as the head men's basketball coach at Duke University. At Duke, Krzyzewski has led the Blue Devils to five NCAA Championships, 12 Final Fours, 12 ACC regular season titles, and 13 ACC Tournament championships. Krzyzewski is also the coach of the United States men's national basketball team, whom he led to two gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Olympics. He...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth13 February 1947
CityChicago, IL
CountryUnited States of America
You should crave this opportunity, to be in that moment. It's exciting. The beauty of the tournament is you have one pitch. You hit it or you miss it. If you hit it, you get another pitch.
I think the people who are involved in this program should embrace it, ... When you look up at the scoreboard, it will say the United States. It will never say an individual name. I can promise you we will put together a team that will serve as an example to the rest of the world of the way the game should be played and the way you conduct yourself.
I think we could have done a little better job, but the other team forces you into those situations. I don't think we ever completely adjusted to the physicality of this game. And they did.
Our big guys were more animated than they have been the entire season.
Giving back what the game has given you, that's one of the things I want to permeate through the program for the next three years and serve as a basis for the team, ... I hope the players look at it that way, too. You forget how lucky you are to be in a specific situation sometimes. We need to get that feeling going again.
He's great, in every sense of the word. We're so lucky to have him.
We're probably going to get beat a number of times. I just think we have to keep improving. I like my team, but we're not who we will be.
I just felt it (Friday) at practice, that we were finally in the NCAA Tournament. Southern did us a favor by playing so well. We needed to get on to the next thing.
I just told the guys to go out and have fun.
If you just focus on J.J. and just watched him, you'd be shocked at the maze of things that he has to get through usually to get a shot. I think he's just evolved each year as a better basketball player, and the last two years he's made a year-round commitment to being in exceptional shape.
I didn't think Sean was going to be able to play. We were a little bit worried it might be real serious, but it wasn't. He played hurt, yet you wouldn't know it. I'm proud of him.
I don't think we ever completely adjusted to the physicality of this game.
In the second half, once we got organized and played better in the half court, our defense was excellent.
I don't think you play for other people's expectations, you know. You don't go and become a lawyer because your mother or father want you to, you don't become a coach because somebody wants you to.