Coach K

[GTHC_ GTH!]

If we actually needed confirmation, Coach K proved his greatness once again. Duke won that game BECAUSE of K. He has the players ready, disciplined, focused and prepared. I am a Captain in the Army and it is clear that Coach K's West Point background is implemented at Duke. We are trained to never accept defeat. Never. And his players don't.

And when it comes to coaching the game, from practice to games to in game adjustments, we have watched greatness for 35 years. Even THR isn't blaming the refs and flat out saying K outcoached Roy. They know it.

I love Coach K and I don't think we appreciate him enough here, believe it or not. Thank K for being K. We all love you.

 

[DukeSky85]

In K we Trust! What a coach we have folks!

 

[Dattier]

Thanks for your service, GT!

Good thing K gave up on winning last night and finally gave Chase, Obi, and Vrank a chance, huh?

 

[dukehokie]

K did one of the hardest things for a coach to do last night. He let his best player take over despite his awful night, and Brandon would be the first tell you that.

Sometimes coaching isn't about how many plays you can draw up. Tonight was a culmination of what K has taught since the summer all the way up until now, and at this point, throw the adjustments out of the window.

The players played because of the coaching, not in spite of it. Great job by K this season.

 

[HuffyJB]

It is sad that yet he again he will get no consideration for ACC Coach of the Year. There isn't a coach in the conference doing a better job than him.

 

[Laettner]

K had laser focus last night & willed our boys to victory. That was straight up West Point in action.

Each time UNC tried a new defensive look we countered in micro seconds. Just flat out amazing to watch.

 

[HeLooks2MuchLikeDave]

Even THR isn't blaming the refs...

That can't be true, can it??

 

[Dattier]

Off the top of my head, 1987, 2000, the late season adjustments in 2001, and 2010 stand out to me as other candidates. Respectively, a young coach loses 4 seniors and makes it back to the Sweet 16, loses 4 key players (including Duke's first 3 early NBA entries ever) and finishes regular season #1 and ACC Champs, loses Boozer to injury and completely revamps style, and adjusts to alarmingly unathletic personnel and wins 4th title.

And this one deserves consideration already, I'd say. 2010 and 2015 are good years to compare it to. In 2010, we had a veteran team but only had 3 true guards. In addition to adjusting our style (most notably playing a more conservative style of D), psychologically he refused to tell that team they were great. They were mature and secure enough to take that as a challenge. This year, we're young and a little fragile, and he has really talked them up, praising their effort and showing a patience and tolerance where he has often exhibited a stern force of will. Last year we also had a bunch of freshmen in key roles, but they were OAD good and he hasn't coached this team the same way, despite similar profiles regarding age.

And even just on its own, w/o comparisons that show K's genius for adjustment, he has taken a hobbled team w/ no depth and glaring weaknesses and made it work. Losing 4 out of 5 could have snowballed far worse, but we're now on a 5-game winning streak, including 3 in a row over teams ranked well above us.

 

[Dattier]

That can't be true, can it??

From the little I've read over there, they all seem to be calling for Roy's head. I saw one comment on the refs and someone replied saying they'd actually gotten the better of the calls, and that was pretty much all there was on that subject. I'm sure there were all kinds of comments about nearly every call throughout the game somewhere, but when that all settled down, they seem to be hating on Roy more than anything.

 

[dukiejay]

Yeah, their aggression on Roy is a bit over the top, IMO. I'll admit last night wasn't one of his shining moments as a coach, but I do think it's fair to ask about the mental toughness of his team. This is a veteran core that just hasn't been able to figure it out. It was understood two seasons ago when most of them were freshmen and sophomores....but they're not anymore.

 

[timo0402]

It is sad that yet he again he will get no consideration for ACC Coach of the Year. There isn't a coach in the conference doing a better job than him.

Great point.

 

[aah555]

In general, I think Roy doesn't get the respect he deserves b/c he coaches in the shadow of K, and to a lesser extent the ghost of Dean Smith. But, last night, K badly outcoached him. K did an incredible job exploiting every mismatch we had in our favor, keeping our guys' belief high even after Matt got hurt and we fell behind by 6 (which could have been very deflating), sprinkling in zone to get UNC out of rhythm, and keeping our guys as fresh as possible by managing the tempo. of the game to try and using timeouts strategically. For instance, one thing i noticed was how K repeatedly was slowing Thornton down and getting him to hold it outside for a good 5-10 seconds to give our guys a little bit of a blow before we got into our actions.

Roy, by contrast, just didn't exploit their advantages. It's inexplicable to me how they let us get away with BI on Meeks without even trying to exploit that; let alone going after Plumlee with 4 fouls. IMO, even if the initial post-up didn't work, misses by their bigs would have led to easy offensive rebounds that they would have finished and produced a number of fouls. By settling for jumpers, UNC protected our guys from foul issues and gave us a chance to secure the long rebounds. Even when Brice Johnson was dominating early, so much of that was on the offensive glass. They really didn't get the ball inside nearly enough. Also, Roy didn't do a good job of keeping the pace high in the 2nd half. Unlike the first, where UNC was playing unbelievably fast -- they seemed to slow down a lot in the 2nd. For a team that supposedly had a huge depth advantage, I think they really let us off the hook by basically letting the game descend into a possession-by-possession, half-court battle.

 

[dukehokie]

Roy does really well when he has a speedy take over point guard, matched with an aggressive big man. With other types of rosters, he does well for himself, but certainly not as well as his championship years. You could say the same about Izzo and his propensity for versatile, undersized, angry forwards. A lot of coaches do well when they have certain players, and I think Roy is a victim of his own success in that regard.

Last night can't be put totally on Roy, because this is the same 20-12 from last year minus a key cog in JP Tokoto. Last night, that looked like the 20-12 UNC that we know and "love". Some of that is on Roy and the assistants, some of it is on the players.

The one thing I will say, when Roy's guys underachieve, he gets a bit of a pass, when K's guys don't play as expected, it's on him and his poor recruiting, development, etc. All of these coaches deal with the same crap, some are just better at dealing with the crap than others. K is the best, plain and simple.

 

[Kingbluedevil]

Watching Matt Jones on the bench injured pulling for his teammates with all he had last night shows what type of coaching and team game Duke teaches. Has to impress recruits and make them want to be a part of this OFC

 

[pisgah101]

Roy Williams is one of the worst in game coach a major university has ever had IMO he must have an extreme talent advantage it he loses everytime....

K in the other hand best coach any sport of all-time I'll never believe different

 

[skysdad]

I just can't see Duke fans ever feeling this way about Coach K. UNC still has to be one of the favorites to win the title this year for goodness sakes. OFC

 

[DiehardDukeFan4Life]

Watching Matt Jones on the bench injured pulling for his teammates with all he had last night shows what type of coaching and team game Duke teaches. Has to impress recruits and make them want to be a part of this OFC

I agree...I saw a video of the team going to the locker room after the game and evene being on crutches and not putting any pressure on his injured ankle he still had a huge smile on his face

 

[DevilDJ]

Even "Brenda" admits it. Gottleib's gushes too.. Audio as well......


“As a Carolina guy, I hate to say it, but what he’s doing is groundbreaking,” Haywood said. “But I’m not going to condemn Roy because a lot of coaches in college basketball only know how to coach inside their box. I think Roy is comfortable in his box and doesn’t want to step outside of it. . . . I look at Coach K, and I’m like, wow, this guy was running trapping, aggressive, man-to-man defense. (He) immediately looked at this year’s team and said, ‘I can’t do that. We’re going to run primarily a 1-3-1 zone, 2-3 zone and drop back into that a lot.’ That is not what Duke basketball has been for the last decade. It pains me to say it, but that is why he’s the best.”

http://gottlieb.radio.cbssports.com...s-ground-breaking/?cid=twitter_CBSSportsRadio

 

[twdukefan]

Yeah, their aggression on Roy is a bit over the top, IMO. I'll admit last night wasn't one of his shining moments as a coach, but I do think it's fair to ask about the mental toughness of his team. This is a veteran core that just hasn't been able to figure it out. It was understood two seasons ago when most of them were freshmen and sophomores....but they're not anymore.

I think the situation is only exacerbated when you saw the mental toughness of the freshmen on Duke's roster last year, especially Tyus and Grayson in the championship game. Given all the heartbreak and tough losses UNC has had the past couple years, you'd think they would have learned from that. NOPE