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Kudos for Coach K Krzyzewski named ACC Coach of the Year
Posted: Tuesday March 14, 2000 01:57 PM
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- Last May, Mike Krzyzewski was feeling pain on two fronts -- hip replacement surgery and what appeared to be the sudden collapse of his powerful Duke program. The day after Corey Maggette joined Elton Brand and William Avery as the first underclassmen opting to leave the Blue Devils early for the NBA, rising senior Chris Carrawell called Krzyzewski and told him that he, Shane Battier and Nate James were coming over to the house. "He was hurting," Carrawell said. "We kind of felt for him. We wanted to go over there and support him. When he told us he was going to be ready to coach us this year I knew we were going to have a great year." The 53-year-old Krzyzewski made a full recovery from his offseason surgery, and his program was equally successful rebuilding from the NBA defections, winning both the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season and tournament titles and finishing ranked No. 1 with a 27-4 record. Krzyzewski was rewarded Tuesday with The Associated Press Atlantic Coast Conference coach of the year award. It's his second straight honor, third in the last four years and fifth overall. Only Dean Smith, with seven, has more. Krzyzewski received 56 1/2 votes out of 103 cast by members of the Atlantic Coast Sports Writers Association. Gary Williams of Maryland, who made it to the ACC title game for the first time in his 11 seasons in College Park, Md., finished second with 29 1/2 votes. "This is one of the really happy years for me because we've had a team that had to change in every way, and the willingness of the all the players to change and the help that each player gave one another was tremendous," Krzyzewski said.
The Blue Devils lost their first two games of the season for the first time since 1958-59 before reeling off 18 straight wins, cracking the top 10 and once again becoming one of college basketball's teams to beat. "You're a great coach when you have a lot of talent, but what can you do when there's some turmoil going on like last year when players left?" Carrawell said. "He showed why he's the best coach in the game -- by far." Confined to a stool in practice last year because of his ailing hip, Krzyzewski was back this season with a hands-on approach melding a young team that includes three freshmen in its top six. "You could really see him hurting last year and my freshman year, unable to get into the drills," said Battier. "He just basically yelled from the sideline and let his assistants handle most of the daily practices. But this year, when he saw something he didn't like, he got into the drills. You could see him get re-energized." Krzyzewski now has 15 20-win seasons at Duke. "This team has needed a lot more things, in that respect it has been a really good year for me," he said. "There has been more one-on-one stuff, not just with the coaching staff but from player-to-player."
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