Coach K reveals what his team has to fight to be a champion

A five-time national champion head coach, Mike Krzyzewski knows what it takes to win a title. After his Duke team lost to Virginia this weekend, he shared what his team has to fight to win the title this year.

It was a tough setback for the Blue Devils, who just handily beat North Carolina on Saturday. Instead of building on the momentum from the rivalry win, Duke fell to Virginia 69-68 at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Monday.

But Krzyzewski knew his team was in trouble early. He called a timeout when Duke trailed 8-2 to try and get the train back on the tracks.

After the game, he spoke about what his group has to do to win a championship. He pointed to one key thing the players have to go against if they want to succeed.

“I call it ‘fighting human nature,'” Krzyzewski told reporters. “Not attitude, but human nature. It’s tough to do multiple outstanding things. But if you really want to be a champion, that’s what you’ve got to do. We talked about it. We weren’t able to practice it because you’re dead after the North Carolina game. You just walk through, talk, try to get mentally ready and we were not able to get over that hump.

“The other thing [is] they had a lot to do with this. We might’ve been ready and they would’ve beaten us. We were an accomplice in the first half, definitely.”

Coach K calls out Paolo Banchero, team offense following Virginia loss

Duke had been on a roll coming into Monday night’s ACC matchup against Virginia. The Blue Devils were riding a five-game win streak, sitting at 19-3 overall on the season and up to a No. 7 ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.

While Duke dug itself into an early 10-point hole and trailed 34-29 at halftime, Blue Devils’ star Paolo Banchero struggled throughout the night – scoring just nine points on 3-of-9 shooting. He took just one total shot in the second half, which was a 3-pointer as time expired.

Following the Blue Devils’ loss, head coach Mike Krzyzewski was asked what Virginia was doing to keep Banchero from taking shots and getting going.

“He’s touching the ball,” Krzyzewski said of Banchero. “He needs to take more shots, and he needs to take his jump shot. He needs to take his jump shot. With him, when he does get the ball, a lot of double teams. There’s a lot of double teams. So then you’ve gotta pass out of it – and we’ve gotta hit shots. If we hit shots, they don’t double team. I mean, that’s part of making those adjustments.”