After Coach K, The Next Coach at Duke

[Marcus]

Last night after watching the NCAA championship and watching Butler and Uconn Slug it out... I noticed a few different things... I noticed how much more talented Uconn was, obviously... I noticed how composed Brad Stevens was even with his team down 11... and out of desperation with 10 minutes to go he went to a 2-3 zone to try and force turnovers or for his team to get a lucky rebound... After the horn sounded and Uconn won their 3rd National Championship of the Jim Calhoun Era... The main thing I noticed was how old Jim Calhoun looked... Sure, He's the oldest coach to win a National Championship at 68... but it got me thinking...How much longer does Coach K have left... it's inevitable.. the thought atleast of replacing our hall of fame Coach. I am just wondering what some of you guys would think of a good replacement. Would Duke actually keep it in the family and hire one of Duke's former assistants under Coach K or would they step out of the family and hire "the best available?" Duke is a prized job... It is the Job! Expectations are to NEVER lose and the fan base is incredible. I'd like to see a guy like Brad Stevens Coach Duke one day... Look what he's been able to do with much, much less talented teams... The guy looks like a nerd but almost always outsmarts his opposing coach ...except for Coach K and Calhoun of course...two hall of fame coaches!

[Ima Facultiwyfe]

I don't even want to think about it.
Love, Ima

[davekay1971]

I don't even want to think about it.
Love, Ima

No need to. Coach K shows no signs of slowing down and he's made no indication that he has any thought of retirement. Whenever he decides to retire, be it 5 or 10 (or however many) years from now, we can look at the best candidates and speculate at that time.

I'd submit the mods could lock this thread and unlock it when Coach K announces his plans to retire.

[moonpie23]

well, i'm kinda old...but folks predicting that my retirement is imminent are in for a shock....I hope coach K coaches till he doesn't WANT to coach any more...

[noyac]

I don't even want to think about it.
Love, Ima

I fully agree. The thought is not even a blip on my radar

[PADukeMom]

Joe Paterno has 20 years on K so replacing him is not even a thought in my head.

[miramar]

Coach K should retire when he looks as old as Calhoun or when he has 10% as much gray hair as I do (and I'm 10 years younger).

[NashvilleDevil]

Doesn't this thread pop up about 2 or 3 times a year?

[stillcrazie]

The other problem with this topic, IMO, is the obsession with Brad Stevens. You could look at the Carolina boards and find the same sentiment. Everyone thinks they are entitled to Stevens when their coach retires. Hopefully, K's retirement is so far off that when it happens, there will be a whole new crop of coaches we'll be talking about.

[IBleedBlue]

Every school wants Brad Stevens to be their next coach. Go to IC, PackPride and you will find similar threads. Brad Stevens looks like he is on his way to being Coach K of Butler University.
Don't be surprised if Butler keeps busting the brackets year in and year out until people start hating them as they hate us.

[Philsfan]

Brad Stevens is halfway home to becoming the NCAA hoops equivalent of Marv Levy. Both are great coaches, obviously.

[J4Kop99]

will be Brad Stevens and all of you can live happily ever after.

[MulletMan]

Brad Stevens is halfway home to becoming the NCAA hoops equivalent of Marv Levy. Both are great coaches, obviously.

Yeah... and so was Coach K in 1990.

[mkirsh]

I'm a huge Stevens fan as well - I'm impressed with Butlers offensive and defensive sets, the level of effort they consistently play with, his recruiting of good players and kids (Hayward, Mack, Nored, etc), and even his composure in media interviews. That said, it's WAY too early to judge how good he is when looking at such a small sample size. You don't need to look much farther than our own Duke coaching tree to see coaches who were highly acclaimed early (Capel, Amaker, Snyder) who ended up falling on tougher times. Sometimes coaches land a great team that propels them to great tourney success and then they have a hard time re-creating that (Donovan and UF, Smith at UK, etc). Maybe Stevens will turn out to be the next Coach K or Tom Izzo and build a lasting program (I'm rooting for him), but maybe he will be the next Tom Crean or Steve Lavin or Matt Dougherty and have difficulty recreating the success of this particular team, it's just way too early to tell.

I also find it interesting how much weight is placed on tournament performance when assessing coaches. Would we feel differently about Stevens if Howard hadn't hit his last second shot against ODU, or if Butler lost to Pitt? Similarly, Shaka Smart is the hottest coach around because his team won 5 consecutive games in March and everyone is willing to overlook the 11 loss regular season?

[loldevilz]

Every school wants Brad Stevens to be their next coach. Go to IC, PackPride and you will find similar threads. Brad Stevens looks like he is on his way to being Coach K of Butler University.
Don't be surprised if Butler keeps busting the brackets year in and year out until people start hating them as they hate us.

I really don't think that will be possible at Butler. Butler has 2 great players at the two most important positions Center and Point guard: Howard and Mack. Those two don't come around every day, especially if you are a midmajor.

[weezie]

Doesn't this thread pop up about 2 or 3 times a year?

Yeah, kinda like hay fever.

And Stevens impresses me as a good, level-headed coach but an indiana homer all the way.

[revmel53]

I said to my children last week that we will be looking for someone of Stevens' caliber in ten years. And don't believe any of our Duke Assistants, former players, etc. have shown the potential Stevens has. Let's watch the next five years closely.

[SCMatt33]

This seems to pop up every year around now when there is suddenly not a lot to talk about. At 64, I don't think that it's "too soon" to talk about in terms of when it will happen and what type of person will be a good replacement, but today's coaching landscape changes so quickly that even if he were to retire at the soonest reasonable point (which I think would be 2 years from now), the list of candidates would look entirely different than it does today. That being said, it certainly is on my radar because when it happens, I wouldn't want Duke to make a mistake in hiring and end up with a Billy Gilespie instead of a Bill Self. When it comes to things that are this important, speculation is always a fun and interesting topic, but trying to pin specific candidates now is a fruitless conversation.

Two things that I do enjoy discussing is when this decision will need to made and what "type" of coach would be ideal for the job. As far as the first one goes, the questions are "when should he" and "when will he." The answer to the first is pretty easy...whenever he feels like it. That answer makes the second question fun, since it is now a guessing game of what Coach K is thinking (or will think), and who doesn't love guessing games. As I mentioned earlier, I believe that the first reasonable opportunity would be two years from now, at the end of the 2013 season. I would think that his last coaching job will be Duke, so I doubt that he would retire before coaching at least one season after the 2012 Olympics. Further evidence that he won't retire in the immediate future is the 2012-13 freshman class that he is already putting together. I don't think a coach would recruit that far out and not intend to coach them. At the end of 2013, Coach K will be 66 years old. That puts him right in the same age range as several other coaching greats in terms of retirment (John Wooden at 64, Dean Smith at 66, and Bob Knight at 67). At that point, I wouldn't be surprised to see him retire after any season. It becomes about desire at that point to keep going through the grind of coaching full time. He is a big family man, and I'm sure he'd love to spend more time with his grandchildren. He's not big on his own personal records, but I doubt that he could get to win 990 without going for 1000 (it's very possible that his win total is in the 990's after 2014). I also don't see him as the Joe Paterno type, who will just keep coaching til he drops. My guess (which is as bad as everyone else's) is that he goes another 4-6 years.

As for type, the first big question is whether Duke's next hire will be a "Duke guy," someone who has played for/coached for Duke in the past. That's a tough question to answer. My gut says that they would love to hire a Duke Guy, but there has to be one who is young enough to stay for a long time and have already had some head coaching success. We'll see if anybody fits that bill when the time comes. If not, I think Duke will look elsewhere.

[snowdenscold]

Doesn't this thread pop up about 2 or 3 times a year?

I think it's ongoing in two or three others at the moment, actually.

[Atlanta Duke]

well, i'm kinda old...but folks predicting that my retirement is imminent are in for a shock....I hope coach K coaches till he doesn't WANT to coach any more...

As posted above, I know some Penn State football fans who will tell you be careful what you wish for with regard to a coaching legend staying on the job as long as he wants to do so

The man who handled his exit the best was Coach Wooden - knowing when it is time to step down is a tough but necessary part of being a legendary coach