World gives Coach K a higher education

By Rob Miech

Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2007 | 7:09 a.m.

If he's trying to earn his coaching doctorate, Mike Krzyzewski's first exam didn't go so well.

In his first year as its coach, the U.S. national team lost to the Greeks, 101-95, in the semifinals of the world championships hosted by FIBA, the International Basketball Federation.

The finalists, Greece and Spain, received automatic spots in next year's Olympics in China. Team USA has to try to qualify this week at the FIBA Americas Championship at the Thomas & Mack Center.

"We're disappointed we lost to Greece," Krzyzewski says. "But I thought our guys did a hell of a job. Did we do as well as we eventually want to? No. You want to win everything."

For Krzyzewski, who has mastered the college game at Duke University, it's back to the chalk board.

Despite the loss to the Greeks, Krzyzewski has been refreshed by trying to hone a band of professional superstars on the nuances of the international game.

Before training started in Las Vegas this summer, he told P.J. Carlesimo, who coached a select team in scrimmages against the senior players, how much running the U.S. team has revitalized him.

It wasn't like he was battling depression, Krzyzewski told Carlesimo, but coaching elite players on a global stage has excited him more about basketball than anything he's done in the game in more than 10 years.

"Just when you think you can't be educated as much anymore, all of a sudden you're working on a Ph.D.," Krzyzewski says. "If you're a teacher, you should never stop learning."

Krzyzewski, 60, can be very difficult to read. That's by design. In his Duke cocoon, he controls everything. Trying to get exclusive interview time by phone, say, is as challenging as beating the Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Carmelo Anthony, the Denver Nuggets star , says his only read on Coach K has been watching Duke games on television. Or on those American Express commercials, says Jason Kidd, the point guard from the New Jersey Nets.

Krzyzewski has not encountered one attitude problem in working with the national team, and the players seem to enjoy him the more they're around him.

Had Kobe Bryant not entered the NBA draft out of high school in 1996, he would have played for Krzyzewski at Duke instead of heading straight to the Los Angeles Lakers .

Bryant has found an extremely intellectual and cerebral mentor, but he especially likes Krzyzewski's passion.

"For me, that's the most important thing because I love the game so much," Bryant says. "We have a coach who has the same type of vibe. It's awesome."

His sense of humor is just as keen. Krzyzewski has a penchant for poking fun at himself with regular Polish jokes.

"I think he knows that that cracks us up," Anthony says.

"That was the first thing that surprised me," Kidd says. "You see him coaching games (at Duke), he's not cracking jokes. But he does have a great sense of humor."

Kidd is pressed about one particular joke that none of the players would repeat.

"I think he might have used a cuss word," he says. "That caught us off guard."

It's one of Krzyzewski's signature words, so he's like any other coach. It won't be heard on any American Express commercial.

Kidd noted a shift in global hoops at the 2000 Olympics in Australia.

The U.S. squeaked by Lithuania, 85-83, in the semifinals. In the final, the Americans led France by only four points in the final four minutes, then won by 10.

"It wasn't easy for us," Kidd says. "At that point, you knew the world was getting better and, hopefully, we'd get better.

"We didn't."

The U.S. stars can no longer just show up and win the gold. Two years later, the U.S. stumbled on American soil. A disastrous sixth-place finish at the FIBA Worlds in Indianapolis signaled the beginning of its international slide.

Jerry Colangelo, the former owner of the Phoenix Suns who was hired to overhaul USA Basketball, signed Krzyzewski to a multiyear contract to lay a new foundation.

"As each year goes by, we're learning more and more about the international game," Carlesimo says. "Some of these guys didn't experience the disappointment or embarrassment in Athens, Japan or wherever. Mike's educating them, teaching them."

While installing some basic international strategies, Krzyzewski will allow his stars to do what they do best. After all, the coach notes, Kidd has played more games than Krzyzewski's coached.

"We should rely on that," Krzyzewski says of the knowledge and experience of his players. "Our staff, we're secure enough in who we are. It doesn't have to be what we do as a staff, it's what we do as a team."

Anthony expects to thrive playing the more physical international game. That has endeared him to Krzyzewski, who says he loves the way Anthony plays hard at both ends of the court.

The feeling is mutual, Anthony says, because he sees how hard Krzyzewski has been working.

Krzyzewski wants Anthony, Bryant and Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James to crash the boards for rebounds when someone else launches a shot. He's made defending the pick-and-roll and playing against zone defenses priorities in camp.

"I don't think Mike is bored or jaded at Duke, but all of this is very, very different," Carlesimo says. "I think he's really relishing this. It's not like he doesn't have challenges at Duke anymore, but this one is special."

By the end of the week, Krzyzewski starts constructing his cocoon. By the weekend, a practice - and its ensuing media session - will be canceled.

Before that, he is asked if he ever daydreamed of what it would have been like to coach Bryant for a season or two at Duke.

"No, I don't daydream about things that can't happen," Krzyzewski says. "I'll daydream about the people I have and what can happen with them."

He's asked if he senses that, or has heard, that any of the national-team players take it personally that the U.S. has not played in the past three major international finals for the first time since the FIBA Worlds began in 1950.

"They don't talk about it every day," Krzyzewski says. "I'm sure they do ... you should talk to them."

But have you heard any of that chatter?

"No, they're working their butts off," he says. "Whatever motivates them, I would hope that the main thing is they want to win for the U.S. But you should talk to them about it."

Do you take it personally?

"Absolutely."