After Coach K

[TillyGalore]

Why would Bobby Hurley be considered for the HC position? Does he have any coaching experience? All I hear about him relates to his horses.

I am by no means dissing the guy I love him as much as the next fan. I would want a coach with proven experience to replace K, not someone solely because they are part of the Duke family.

[cspan37421]

I didn't mean immediately. Bring him in first, or up to the college level (he's actually coaching middle schoolers, last I heard, as well as doing the horse racing thing). His dad was a HS coach. I mention BH just based on what K said about him being the perfect extension of himself on the floor. Seems to me that if you're going to consider someone to groom for K's position, that's the quality you want. But yeah, he's far from being able to walk into it at the moment.

[365Duke]

K's grandson... when he reached the age of 40 until then, K will have to hold the job for him

[Cameron]

I nominate King Taylor as player/coach

[Duke12]

Remember Coach K's age when Tom brought him in? WoJo is your next guy. I believe Coach sees alot of himself in WoJo and will further mentor/groom WoJo over the next 5-10 years while Collins takes a head coaching job elsewhere.

[Bluedawg]

I'm not exactly sure where I heard that Dawkins doesn't want the job. Don't think it was the message boards...maybe he said it after a game several years ago.

Interview With Johnny Dawkins

by Richard Kent, [BlackAthlete Sports Network,LLC]
POSTED: Jan 14, 2007

BA-You must have had numerous opportunities to be a head coach.

JD-I have had opportunities but I am very happy at Duke.The opportunity to work with Coach K. is great.He is a true leader.And he has taught me a lot.

BA-Would you consider a head coaching job?

JD-Sure that is my goal.

BA-Would that be at Duke after Coach K, retires?

JD-Let's not talk about him retiring.And coaching Duke is everyone's ideal.

I think that is pretty clear and speaks for itself.

[dukestheheat]

after Coach K chooses to hang up his shoes, i'm moving to the mountains, gonna let the hair grow, and i'm going to start eating out of dempster dumpsters. i'm so depressed just thinking about that, that i could only muster lower case letters in this whole reply.

dth.

[siestadogz]

I hope that coach K stays at Duke for a long time. He will be the best as long as he retains his passion.
When he leaves, I hope Duke looks outside our own community for a new coach.
Every year coaches prove themselves capable of bigger things by being successful at smaller schools without all the advantages that Duke has to offer. Most great coaches including coach K have been recruited from the outside.
At the same time coaching is as much an art as a science. I am sure that Amakar and Snyder know coach K's philosophy of coaching very well and yet neither one was particularly successful. A good athletic director can spot that x factor. Remember that K and Spurrier were both brought to Duke. They both were gems.

[dkbaseball]

Sorry to be a party pooper, but let's not lose sight of the K coaching tree -- Amaker, Snyder, Bender, Swenson, Henderson and the guy who went to Fairfield (Tim Toole?). All fired, some out of the business altogether. Mike Brey has had moderate success, but his pedigree includes playing for and coaching under Morgan Wooten of DeMatha, arguably the best high school coach ever.

It cannot reasonably be argued that preparing his assistants for head coaching positions is one of K's strengths. Indeed, I think his success is largely attributable to unique personal qualities that aren't necessarily transferrable to his associates.

It's not hard to see potential in each of the three current assistants, but they need to be head coaches before being considered for the Duke job. The next head coach of Duke needs a track record as head coach. When K takes his leave of Duke, every tribute should be extended, except the right to name his successor and "keep it in the family." Dean got that privilege, and while Gut had some success, it's fair to say he took a lot of steam out of the program.

[Bluedawg]

It's not hard to see potential in each of the three current assistants, but they need to be head coaches before being considered for the Duke job. The next head coach of Duke needs a track record as head coach. When K takes his leave of Duke, every tribute should be extended, except the right to name his successor and "keep it in the family." Dean got that privilege, and while Gut had some success, it's fair to say he took a lot of steam out of the program.

I agree, UNC's conference record under Guthridge was 13-3, 10-6, and 9-7. I've never really thought the head coaching job was something you passed out as a "reward" for long term service.

[bluedevil]

Mike Montgomery could be available, he's 2-0 against Coach K and had an undefeated regular season, he's like the Goestenkors of mens basketball except he had almost no talent because of Stanford admissions while G had many of the best players in the country. K may leave earlier than some expect, Duke was 8-8 last season and not even in Slam's preseason top 25 with no proven center or top center recruit. Many in the NBA think K would make a great pro coach because he has an uptempo system that isn't very structured offensively and relies on individual offensive talent and doesn't use zone defense. None of K's former assistants have succeeded as head coaches and Dawkins may be the least inclined among them to recruit, which is the lifeblood of any college basketball program. I would hire Collins before Dawkins or Wojo, Collins helped Amaker bring in the #1 class at Seton Hall, brought Chicago recruits to Duke, and is the son of an NBA coach who knows defense. The fact that he seems 3rd in line behind Dawkins and Wojo among Duke types should tell you something. Who's better than Mike Montgomery? He applied for the UVA job so he'd probably be thrilled to coach Duke, he also had a 100% grad rate for 15 years before a couple stars left for the NBA so the faculty, president, and admissions office should love him.

[Lord Ash]

Uh, didn't Gut take them to two final fours in three years? I would take that...

[Indoor66]

Mike Montgomery could be available, he's 2-0 against Coach K and had an undefeated regular season, he's like the Goestenkors of mens basketball except he had almost no talent because of Stanford admissions while G had many of the best players in the country. K may leave earlier than some expect, Duke was 8-8 last season and not even in Slam's preseason top 25 with no proven center or top center recruit. Many in the NBA think K would make a great pro coach because he has an uptempo system that isn't very structured offensively and relies on individual offensive talent and doesn't use zone defense. None of K's former assistants have succeeded as head coaches and Dawkins may be the least inclined among them to recruit, which is the lifeblood of any college basketball program. I would hire Collins before Dawkins or Wojo, Collins helped Amaker bring in the #1 class at Seton Hall, brought Chicago recruits to Duke, and is the son of an NBA coach who knows defense. The fact that he seems 3rd in line behind Dawkins and Wojo among Duke types should tell you something. Who's better than Mike Montgomery? He applied for the UVA job so he'd probably be thrilled to coach Duke, he also had a 100% grad rate for 15 years before a couple stars left for the NBA so the faculty, president, and admissions office should love him.

I see Montgomery as a re-treaded also ran. I would hope that Duke would look for a young, experienced head coach of a smaller school who had earned a shot at the big time. Maybe someone from Army or the like. I would rather have "our" coach than someone else's semi-successful guy. Collins might be OK but Jason Capel is out earning a job in the rough and tumble as a head coach.

Of course the whole discussion is about a decision that is about 10+ years away and might be considered premature...

[allenmurray]

Dawkins has said that he hates recruiting. This may also be a factor in him shying away from being a head coach.

JD is a very committed dad. I believe that his kids are about 13 and 11. He may "hate" recruiting less when it doesn't mean being away from his own kids (meaning when they are away at college). If so, then that would work out pretty well with K's possible retirement plans.

[trinity92]

I think when Coach K retires Duke should replace him with Danny Ferry. Then Duke should make former major league baseball player Ugueth Urbina baseball coach. Get hall of famer Joe Namath to take over the football program. Then get hall of fame player Denise Curry to take over the womens' basketball coaching job. Sure it makes no logical sense, I just want the first letter of the coaches last names to spell out FUNC!

Ferry wouldn't be a bad choice at all, if he chose to get into coaching, although he would need some serious training as a HC at a lesser program first. That's one of the same reasons I wouldn't allow CC or Wojo to take over the program before running a different team first.

Along the same lines as another poster, and I know this is kind of a personal thing to me, I simply can't get over the black period in Duke basketball that CC presided over, and I would go very close to saying caused. I will never forgive CC for taking the last shot in the title game against Arkansas, and I never got a warm and fuzzy feeling for him. Never met the guy, but that goes for a lot of the Duke players after I graduated that I supported 100%.

We'll just have to be ready for a rebuilding period like UNC suffered after Dean left. If we are supremely lucky, we will get back to the top as soon after K retires. UNC did an amazing job in that regard, and set the bar quite high.

[VAGentleman05]

Who's better than Mike Montgomery? He applied for the UVA job so he'd probably be thrilled to coach Duke, he also had a 100% grad rate for 15 years before a couple stars left for the NBA so the faculty, president, and admissions office should love him.

Only on a handful of internet message boards did Montgomery "apply for the UVA job." While it might be a good idea for Duke to look in his direction, I think it's pretty unlikely that he'll head back east.

[Clipsfan]

I see that a couple people have thrown out Capel's name, but I don't know why he isn't being given more consideration. He was an assistant coach at ODU, an assistant coach at VCU, took over the VCU program at the young age of 27 and built it into the program that defeated Duke last March, and is going to have 6-10 (hopefully at least) years building the program at Oklahoma. He is part of the Duke family, proved that he could both coach and recruit while at VCU, and will hopefully continue to progress on both fronts at Oklahoma. There are some issues there, but I would like to think that he won't get into the same difficulties as Snyder did, and will have more integrity. Assuming that he views Duke as the holy grail of coaching, I don't know why he wouldn't take the job if offered it, and if he continues to do an excellent job I think that he would be in serious consideration for the position. I think that Dawkins is still the front runner, but Capel will be up there when the time comes.

[arnie]

A local broadcaster interviewed K several weeks ago and walked away with the impression that K would retire in 2-3 more years. The broadcaster said K was interested in teaching at Duke, traveling the world and giving more national speeches. Of course K would not speculate on his retirement date.

I think Capel would be the right choice. He has the head coaching experience and proven success. Of course, with our administration, I have no confidence that they would pick anyone except the person K nominates.
I think we have to hope that K understands best who his successor should be.

The key hire, might be the successor to K's successor. That has been the historical trend for dynasties.

[Clipsfan]

A local broadcaster interviewed K several weeks ago and walked away with the impression that K would retire in 2-3 more years. The broadcaster said K was interested in teaching at Duke, traveling the world and giving more national speeches. Of course K would not speculate on his retirement date.

I think Capel would be the right choice. He has the head coaching experience and proven success. Of course, with our administration, I have no confidence that they would pick anyone except the person K nominates.
I think we have to hope that K understands best who his successor should be.

The key hire, might be the successor to K's successor. That has been the historical trend for dynasties.

Did the broadcaster state why he had that impression, other than the desire to teach/travel? K gets to teach as the coach, although there isn't much travel outside the US associated with the job. I'd like to hope that he'll be around a while longer, if nothing else at least until he holds the record for career victories. I think that he'll try for that, it's well within his reach.

[arnie]

The sportscaster (name unknown - but he was discussing the subject with Tom Suiter) felt that K wanted to do more teaching at Duke coupled with world travel and more speaking engagements. I tend to agree with you that he will probably pass Deano, but its hard to chase the win's record if Knight intends to coach until he dies. The point I'm trying to make is that Duke should be looking ahead a bit just in case K does leave sooner than we hope.