Mike Krzyzewski Shows Growth As Duke Blue Devils Crowned National Champs

College basketball’s one-and-done era hasn’t been too kind to Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, but it was awfully pleasant for him on Monday night as his Blue Devils knocked off the Wisconsin Badgers 68-63 for their first national championship since 2010.

Apr 6, 2015; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Duke Blue Devils bench celebrates after guard Tyus Jones (not pictured) hit a three-point shot against the Wisconsin Badgers during the second half in the 2015 NCAA Men

Even with ACC Player of the Year and top NBA Draft prospect Jahlil Okafor in foul trouble for nearly the entire game, Duke’s other freshmen took over down the stretch for the Blue Devils, accounting for 60 total points for the game. It wasn’t the Okafor show, nor was it the Justise Winslow show. It was a collaboration.

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Down nine with 13:23 left in the game, seldom-used reserve Grayson Allen went on a personal 8-2 run and Tyus Jones converted an and-1 to pull the Blue Devils within one with 9:47 remaining in the game.

Tyus Jones took over when Duke needed a lift the most. With just more than four minutes remaining after trading baskets, Jones connected on a three, giving Duke the lead, which they never relinquished the rest of the way.

In a season, and a sport, defined by the freshmen stars who spend one year with their respective programs before cashing in, Coach K was finally able to find success in the new regime.

The one-and-done era began with the 2005-06 season due to the NBA changing their age restrictions for the draft, but it didn’t start picking up as much steam in college basketball until around Duke’s last national championship in 2010.

Since that time, Duke has been a regular season juggernaut but hasn’t been able to turn that into postseason success. Their failures have been highly publicized (losses to Lehigh and Mercer in round of 64 games, being routed by Arizona in the Sweet 16, and such) and their successes have fallen by the wayside.

Back in August, I asked if Coach K, and Duke, could succeed in this era. Coach K is one of the old-school coaches in college basketball. It’s his way or the highway. His greatest successes have come from players that stuck it out for four years and accomplished great things. Duke’s 2010 championship team exemplified that, but it hasn’t been easy going for Coach K as of late.

Apr 6, 2015; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Duke Blue Devils center Jahlil Okafor (15) celebrates on the bench during the second half against the Wisconsin Badgersin the 2015 NCAA Men

Losing eight players in the last four drafts alone, Duke had to readjust their recruiting strategy knowing they wouldn’t be able to keep every player more than one year. Thankfully for the Blue Devils, top prospects Okafor and Jones decided early they were going to go to the same school, and that school just so happened to be Duke.

Since last August, Duke was expected to accomplish great things, and it appeared they would be headed that way early on. Opening the season with 14 straight wins, the Blue Devils seemed unstoppable.

Then their inexperience and their weaknesses were exposed with two straight losses. Duke’s defense was that key flaw, and the coach knew he had to change something.

Against Louisville, in a game that could’ve easily led to their third straight loss and spelled doom for the rest of the season, Duke employed a zone defense, something Coach K rarely uses. He not only used it, he used it for an entire game, which threw off the Cardinals and got the Blue Devils back on track.

That zone defense came into play against on Monday. With Okafor (10 points, three rebounds) in foul trouble and National Player of the Year Frank Kaminsky (21 points, 12 rebounds) having his way, Duke slapped in their zone defense again, forcing Wisconsin to take threes they weren’t comfortable taking during the game (7-for-21 for the game) and taking away the paint.

When Wisconsin went to find the mismatch Kaminsky had, the Blue Devils shifted over to cover him up, not allowing The Tank to have his way anymore.

It’s hard to get freshmen, especially ones that know they won’t be around for more than a year, to buy into a system to begin with, but to get them to buy into one system then change that system midway through the year is even more difficult to do. Coach K got his players to focus on improving their defense, which was outstanding throughout the NCAA tournament, and opened up their offense in the process.

Senior Quinn Cook and junior Amile Jefferson, two of the few players to last this long with Duke in quite some time, combined for just eight points. The freshmen Okafor, Winslow (11 points, nine rebounds, three blocks), Tyus Jones and Allen (16 points) accounted for the most combined points from freshmen by a team in the national championship game in history, including all 37 in the second half.

Matt Jones, while silent on offense, helped stagger the hot-shooting Badger Sam Dekker, who went just 6-for-15 from the field and 0-for-6 from three. Jones came up with just one steal, but he was the mosquito that Dekker couldn’t shake, chasing him all around the perimeter, knocking the ball away and forcing him out of the paint whenever he could.

Jefferson also showed that improved defense, coming up with three blocks while drawing Kaminsky on defense with Okafor sitting with foul trouble.

Apr 6, 2015; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Duke Blue Devils head coach Mike Krzyzewski in the second half against the Wisconsin Badgers in the 2015 NCAA Men

Tyus Jones’ first three of the game put the Blue Devils up 59-58 at the 4:09 mark, but he and Okafor accounted for the next seven points of the game, including Jones hitting his second and final three to put Duke up eight and putting the Badgers to bed.

Jones finished with a game-high 23 points on 7-for-13 shooting and 2-for-3 from distance to go with five rebounds.

What this win shows, as he’s shown throughout the season, has been Krzyzewski’s acceptance of the one-and-done era and willingness to adapt. He wasn’t able to do that last year with Jabari Parker, who as a small forward played center most of the time.

He wasn’t able to do that with Austin Rivers, who left after one year of solid play and a first-round NCAA tournament exit. He wasn’t able to do that with Kyrie Irving, who sat out most of his only year with a foot injury and left after playing in just 11 games.

Now, Krzyzewski has proved to the nation that he’s able to get players to buy into his system, but also has proved his ability to read his players in a shorter amount of time. He no longer has two or three years to mold players into who he wants them to be for his team. He has maybe three months.

By the time conference play comes around, asking players to adjust everything you’ve been working on since August doesn’t usually lead to good results.

They did this time.

Duke’s defense moved from a cheese grater to a well oiled machine. Blue Devil guards began pressuring more in the backcourt, following through on ball screen defense and allowing Okafor to be more of a defensive presence in the paint as the season went along.

With a stifling defense to go along with there powerhouse offense, the Blue Devils became almost unstoppable.

While the rest of the nation hopes to keep up with John Calipari and what he’s doing with his Kentucky Wildcats, Krzyzewski has taken his time and adjusted to this era of college basketball, but he did it on his time, in his way with his players.

His reward? A fifth national championship and another chance to prove it all over again next year.

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