Coach K: The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski

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And then, in 1980, Coach K managed to land the Duke job, leapfrogging a number of more qualified candidates. While his resume might not have been as impressive as others, he brought an energy and desire that seemed to fit what the school was looking for in a head coach. This book is a well-deserved and timely tribute to Coach Mike Krzyzewski. For those sports fans who are counting, I finished reading this the night after Coach K’s 2022 Duke team lost in the Final Four to their uber-rivals, the University of North Carolina Tarheels.

Coach K: The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski - Kindle

The author writes about Krzyzewski’s temper and profanity, and that in defeat he was at times unpleasant to be around. He states that Krzyzewski at times had trouble saying he was sorry. The second time I typed it, the time when I mentioned O'Connors inclusion of misspellings of Coach K's name, I spelled it wrong. Flagrant. O'Connor's assessment of Coach K's coaching ability is somewhat blinkered. Time and again, he says that Coach K is not considered a strategic genius, the type of person who can draw up a play when the team needs a last second basket. Yet, he provides at least two examples, where Coach K-designed plays provided the winning shot that sent Duke into the Final Four. (As an aside, who are these coaching savants who can come up with last second sure-fire scoring? O'Connor never says.) About 80 percent of the proceeds will go toward supporting The Chronicle, which is now in its 117th year of publication and 27th year of financial independence. The Chronicle, Duke’s independent student news organization, has published a new book documenting Mike Krzyzewski’s historic coaching career ahead of his final season leading the Blue Devils.Coach K" glosses over the last 15 years or so of Krzyzewski's career at Duke. By that time, Coach K had largely walled himself from access to anyone outside his family and close circle of friends, leaving O'Connor to repeat what is generally available from public reportage. Of greater interest to O'Connor is Coach K's tenure as Olympic basketball coach from 2006 to 2016. While he credits K with masterful handling of NBA superstar personalities, he also gives voice to critics who claim that Krzyzewski used the Olympic position to help recruiting. O'Connor fails to note that there was a significant downturn in Duke recruiting for the first four years of K's Olympic tenure. Coach K: The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski is an excellent read for hard-core college hoops fans. Like me.

Coach K: The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski - Kindle Coach K: The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski - Kindle

It should be noted that Krzyzewski himself did not speak to O’Connor for the book, though by all accounts he was receptive to the idea of others – from all chapters in his life – sitting down with the author. Make no mistake, however – this book is PLENTY thorough.) on the record and a few here and there that perhaps weren't, this is for you. For me, reading it often was more like reading an encyclopedia than a biography. It was not worth my time, which is unfortunately very limited right now though that will change soon.

Both Scheyer and Amaker played for Krzyzewski -- Amaker from 1982 to '87 and Scheyer from 2006 to '2010. Amaker was an assistant coach at Duke for nine seasons, but left for a head-coaching job at Seton Hall in 1997 at age 31. He went on to coach at Michigan and has been the head coach at Harvard since 2007. Scheyer has been an assistant coach at Duke since 2013 and was promoted to associate head coach after the 2018 season. Coach K book Courtesy of Mariner Books

Leading with the Heart: Krzyzewski, Mike: 9781538741610

Hero to some and arch-nemesis to others, all can agree that Krzyzewski was great. And according to this book, he has mastered everything he tried. Except swimming. (Read it and see.) If you are a Duke or Coach K fan, O'Connor's account of Coach K's career at Duke is largely a rehash of things that have been previously reported. One major exception is the behind-the-scenes story of the fracturing of the relationship between Coach K and his mentor, Bobby Knight. There had been previous stories of Knight passing a note to Tommy Amaker to give to Coach K just prior to tip off before Duke played Indiana in the 1992 Final Four. Amaker supposedly read the note and kept it to himself, knowing that it would only upset K. It turns out the note was given to someone else and was ultimately passed along to Krzyzewski, and we learn its contents. This book was exceedingly well researched. It had a bunch of stories even I -- a lifelong Duke fan who hosts a podcast about Duke basketball -- had never heard. I found the stories about K's rise to greatness the most interesting part. We hear so little about those early years. Coach K" is a workman-like account of Mike Krzyzewski's career, timed to cash in on his imminent retirement. O'Connor draws heavily from real-time reportage as well as interviews with Coach K's friends, players, assistant coaches, opposing coaches, and unnamed sources, the latter who tend to predominate the end of the book. (Coach K did not participate, though he did not discourage people from talking to O'Connor.) It appears that O'Connor had particularly good access to Krzyzewski's inner circle prior to his Duke days because he provides a fairly vivid and rounded account of Coach K's life up to 1980, the year he took over at Duke.O'Connor's writing here is often one-note. Mostly what he's done here is collate information. Almost all of it is from other sources, is public knowledge and/or common sense. There's too much about Coach K as a student at West Point playing for Army and too many details about life at West Point (more than at Duke). Do you want to know the math book most students dreaded? In here along with more minutiae. One thing surprised me, because I was a child when Krzyzewski played for West Point: during the Vietnam War some crowds chanted "baby killers!" at the team.