Mike Krzyzewski Interview (page: 5 / 6) Collegiate Basketball Champion	Print Interview

I know it's hard to single out particular moments, but are there one or two in your career that stand out as the most exciting or thrilling?

Mike Krzyzewski: There are a lot, but two of them will do. After we beat Nevada Las Vegas, in the semi-finals in the 1991 final four, they'd won 45 in a row. The Duke world -- and in some respects the basketball world -- went crazy. We still had to win one more game. We had to beat a really good Kansas team to win the National title. It's so difficult to aim high again, after you've achieved something great, especially right away. Here, 48 hours later, we had to win again, and we did. I love that. I love that we were able to do that.

The second time, I was involved in probably one of the great games in the history of college sport, when we beat Kentucky in '92 for the Eastern Regional Championship. Rick Patino and his team played great, and so did we. We were down by one, with 2.1 seconds to go in overtime, and the world seemed like it was over. At that point we, as a group, connected again, and we said, "We're going to win." We talked through how we were going to win, and then we did. Everyone said we were lucky, but my feeling is that luck favors people who trust one another.

Those two moments are, for me, great moments. Actually, the Kentucky moment was better than winning the two National Championships, because it was the epitome of what I try to get from a team in a crisis situation.

The way you describe it, it sounds like it could have taken half an hour, but it must have been very fast. What you've just described, when you said, "We're going to win." How long did that take?

Mike Krzyzewski: TV time-outs take longer than normal time-outs but, a couple minutes. Our bench was on one end of the court, and Kentucky had just scored at the other end of the court. They scored, and our team called a time-out with 2.1 seconds. You could see our team coming to the bench.

I had a towel in my hand, and I threw it to the floor. I was angry, not because we were losing, but the shot that put us behind was a bank shot, from straight on, and you don't do that. People don't shoot bank shots. To me, it was a lucky shot, and I didn't want to lose that way. So I used my anger properly.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I met my team, and I told them, "We're going to win," and I looked into their eyes. Then, when they sat on the bench, I looked at them again, I said, "We are going to win." I felt we were connected. Then I asked Grant Hill -- instead of telling him what to do -- I asked Grant, "Can you throw the ball 75 feet?" And he said, "Yes, I'll throw it." And by saying it already, I think he had already done it. In fact, I think if you had interviewed him now, he would say that, "Well, I gave my word that I was going to do it." But if I said, "Grant, you throw it," it would have been me telling him to do something. I asked Christian Laettner, "If they ring you up, can you catch it?" He says, "Coach, if Grant throws it, I'll catch it." All of a sudden, there was that -- some people would call that bravado, or cocky talk, but we had gone from walking off the court scattered, mentally and physically, to now, a minute and a half later, to believing that we were going to win.

[ Key to Success ] Vision

Everybody interacted in that. Laettner's remark set a very positive tone. It was like, "Yeah, come on, we'll do it." Grant threw it, and Christian caught it, and he shot it, and he hit it, and we won. It was truly a unique time.

I hope I never lose this memory, of what happened in that time of utter happiness for us.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Right in front of me, there was a kid named Richie Farmer from Kentucky. I didn't even see the shot go in, because everyone jumped up, but I knew when he shot it that it was going to go in. Our kids were jumping, and I looked at Richie Farmer, and he was like this: "That could have been us." So my initial thing was to go out to him, and not to our team, just because it seemed a little bit unfair, that you could be in a great game like that, and there was this extreme here, and this extreme down here. As a teacher, I didn't like that, but that's the way it is. That's where great moments come about. But I'll always remember my feeling about Richie, when that happened.

[ Key to Success ] Integrity

The picture of failure?

Mike Krzyzewski: Right, but it wasn't failure, really. The world would say it was failure. But the difference was so small between us. They played great, but they lost. What I try to get across to our guys, and I hope I did it with Richie Farmer in a brief instant, is to say, "You didn't fail." Sometimes when you say that after you win, people say, "You can say that, because you just won." But I truly felt that. To have empathy for someone who has lost, I think, gives you greater appreciation for what you've won. I think it gives you better perspective than by looking at it as, "We're hot stuff now. We've won."

So it's about ethics too, and empathy.

Mike Krzyzewski: Ethics and empathy. I hope we never lose that in collegiate sport. Professional sport is different. It has an entertainment aspect and, I wouldn't say winning at all cost, but it has a clearer definition of winning. Collegiate, amateur sport does not have that, where only the winner is a winner. There are a lot of winners. I hope I never lose that in amateur sport. We are losing it a little bit, and I worry about that.

What's your next big challenge?

Mike Krzyzewski: My next big challenge is my next team. My goal is not to win a National Championship, though I think we are going to win one again, or more. I believe that, but I don't start out with numerical goals, like: we need to win 22 games, or we have to win a National Championship. Too many things can happen. I don't want that to define what we've just done. I'll know if we've done a good job, and I'll try to convey that to my team.

It's exciting to me. What will these kids bring to me? Even the guys who've played for me before, they left me in April, who will they be when they come back to me in October? It's amazing what happens. How will I react to who they are now? Will I be able to mold a unit that will best make use of their talents? That, to me, is what I do. If people want to watch us do that, and get excited about it, that's great, but I don't coach for the fans.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. At Duke University, we have a beautiful cathedral. In the cathedral, there's an altar, and a lot of wood sculpting, carvings, and it's just amazing. I have to think whatever man, or woman, or both, did those things, that if they were just sitting by a lake, making something, that they would make that as good as the one in the altar, because they did it for themselves. Their standards were so good. And then they allowed other people to share it. That's how I try to coach my team. I believe that my standards, or what I want to accomplish for that team, are as high as any fan would want, but maybe the reasoning behind it would be a little deeper, or better for our youngsters to understand or learn from.

[ Key to Success ] Integrity

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