Coach K presser 3/26/14

[jv001]

Yeah, when I mused on the Coaching thread the other day about the negative impact of the AAU culture on the kids' prioritization of winning, and doing all the things necessary to win, I was shouted down by a couple of posters who accused me of being "insulting" to the players. Interesting that K is concerned about similar and related manifestations of the AAU culture. I do find the additional lengths to which he took it -- the impact of the AAU culture on the development of leadership skills -- to be insightful and thought-provoking as well.

I thought about that as I typed the post. I agree with you and Coach about the AAU culture. Too much individualism and not enough TEAM. GoDuke!

[DevilYouKnow]

What's especially encouraging about the five year plan is that should give Johnny, Tommy and Chris (plus current assistants) plenty of time to prove themselves worthy of succession. Not that I'm an advocate of sticking strickly within "the Family" (see Dougherty, Matt), but if one of those three were to really stand out, it would be great to bring them back home.

Then, there's always the bonus of having the greatest coach of all time for five more seasons!

[Kfanarmy]

I noticed that he praised the UVA team and their coach.

I would be EXTREMELY happy if he would consider emulating a bit of their defensive philosophy. I worry about the comments about conditioning, training, and talking in order to properly perform the current defensive scheme; I think it would be better to alter the scheme.

I say this because unless the referees drastically alter the way they are calling the games, the old Duke scheme, even if performed to near perfection by a highly conditioned, coordinated, talking group of athletes, is likely to land us in foul trouble. And I really think that foul trouble was one of the more important reasons for our late-game swoons in several of our losses. Foul trouble equals less aggressive defense; less aggressive defense equals easier scoring opportunities for the opponents and very high shooting percentages, which equals loss of a lead late in the game.

Other than that, there was a lot to be happy about in his comments.


Oh, and by the way, the second to last question was probably about Coach K's comments regarding how the A-10 got more teams into the tournament than ACC teams.

There were a combination of things going on with Duke's D this year. Clearly foul trouble was one of the things that enabled opponents to stay in / take the lead in a few games late. I do think that some of the players exhibited poor (relative to opponents) conditioning in a few games as well. If Coach K believes that their ability to stay down in a good guard position, and inability to communicate at the end of the game were a significant part of the problem and that was driven by a recent change in conditioning drills/program, I believe it. I also think a couple of players on this team really just struggled to maintain focus on that end of the floor. Clearly it is a point of emphasis and I hope to see the old Duke D back, perhaps in the same form, at least in the same intensity.

[Kfanarmy]

I think you forget how great those UNLV teams were. No way a potential 2014-15 Duke team full of freshmen and sophomores would stack up against that veteran laden UNLV team. As good as UNLV's defense was they also had a good offense and would light Duke up.

I agree with this completely. That would be like playing a team with Mercer's upperclassman and Duke's talent -- next year if Jabari or Rodney stay...I believe they had three upperclassmen who went on to play in the NBA. They had the best offense in the country and a defense that could play at the same "runnin'" pace the offense played. They were experienced, talented, confident, cohesive; they were a team.

[Saratoga2]

I noticed that he praised the UVA team and their coach.

I would be EXTREMELY happy if he would consider emulating a bit of their defensive philosophy. I worry about the comments about conditioning, training, and talking in order to properly perform the current defensive scheme; I think it would be better to alter the scheme.

I say this because unless the referees drastically alter the way they are calling the games, the old Duke scheme, even if performed to near perfection by a highly conditioned, coordinated, talking group of athletes, is likely to land us in foul trouble. And I really think that foul trouble was one of the more important reasons for our late-game swoons in several of our losses. Foul trouble equals less aggressive defense; less aggressive defense equals easier scoring opportunities for the opponents and very high shooting percentages, which equals loss of a lead late in the game.

Other than that, there was a lot to be happy about in his comments.


Oh, and by the way, the second to last question was probably about Coach K's comments regarding how the A-10 got more teams into the tournament than ACC teams.

If everything is to be evaluated, what about the system being played, especially since we have seen UVA do very well with a completely different system. Being in better condition and talking more will make us better but does it reflect the change in rules we have seen in the last year?

[Matches]

So glad K did this. I know we as fans aren't really owed anything in terms of communication from the coaching staff but man... I really needed to hear a lot of that after the disappointing end to the season. Eases my mind quite a bit as we head into the offseason.

[bedeviled]

Yeah, when I mused on the Coaching thread the other day about the negative impact of the AAU culture on the kids' prioritization of winning, and doing all the things necessary to win, I was shouted down by a couple of posters who accused me of being "insulting" to the players

Haha, your travails popped into my head as soon as I heard him say that...and I decided to include it in my press conference transcript anyway I agreed with what you wrote, but I don't see it as problem affecting Duke uniquely. As I said, I, too, thought that the mental-emotional aspects were important this past season, but I refrained from getting into debate about player specifics for the very reasons that ended up plaguing you.

BUUUUUUUUUUUUT, now that Coach K has brought it up...
Naw, I still don't really want to go there. Please allow me, though, to mention one point: the difficulty Quinn appeared to have in adjusting the offense. It seemed to me that Quinn slowed the ball and looked to the bench for guidance on offense more so than I recall past PGs doing. In addition, he was clearly flummoxed when defenses presented new looks, which necessitated our taking timeouts and substitutions. He may have good court vision, but I suspect he didn't fully understand what he was seeing this year. It makes me wonder if I didn't truly appreciate the seniors' roles in running the offense last year. I also wonder if our offensive design this year had more to do with our team's needs rather than K's work with the pros (as has been reasonably suggested by some).

Disclaimer: As I've said before, I've never been bully on QC, so my perspective is skewed. But, I thought K alluded to this issue in his presser. Here's my admittedly tenuous evidence:
-- When talking about Tyler and leadership, he appears to associate leading with understanding on the fly: "Even though he’s less talented than Rasheed or Quinn, he had the ability to lead. He did that better without the ball. He understood. He got it while the game was going on better than anyone on our team, so his value increased."
-- Multiple times, he unsolicitedly stressed that a leader doesn't have to be a point guard. Me thinks he doth protest too much
-- Spoke of leadership when talking about Tyler (but not in extended comments about Rasheed or Rodney)
-- Maybe wasn't expecting JP to be the guy to structure things: "With younger guys, if they have that support around them, they're going to function better."

Anyway, it could very well be my bias, but that's what I "heard." As such, I will be curious to watch the method and progress of Tyus' development from within the larger context.

[cato]

Random thought, if the other players need to learn to play to complement the best player, what happens if Jabari stays?

First, I got the sense from K's comments that he is pretty sure that Jabari is gone.

Second, as good as Jabari is on the offensive end, he is not dominant on both ends, and not a complete game changer like Lebron. The best center can be. I assume that the team would still have to adapt to Okafor, including Jabari, since Okafor is (presumably) bringing a dimension that has not been seen at Duke in a long time.

Third, dreaming of Okafor at the 5 and Jabari at the 4 feels a little like dreaming of a full season of Kyrie . . .

[CDu]

I tend to disagree with Coach K on the specifics of the point about AAU culture and its effect on players. I don't think it de-emphasizes winning. These kids, before AAU exploded, were playing tons and tons of pickup games anyway. They want to win those pickup games just like they want to win those AAU tournaments. Instead of desensitization to losing, I think what the AAU culture has done is de-emphasized the focus on teamwork that is necessary at the lower levels in order to prepare a kid for college ball. So I think it is more accurate to say that these kids are less prepared as freshman than it is to say that they have been desensitized to winning.

The AAU culture creates tons of games with different players, different coaches, and different opponents. That, by nature, makes developing any sort of continuity difficult. So if you're playing with regularly-changing teammates, how can you expect to develop an understanding of teamwork and trust in your teammates? And if you're playing against teams with regularly changing teammates who also will face the same troubles developing teamwork and trust, how can you get the lessons (typically gained through losing) that enforce the need for better understanding of teamwork (on both ends of the floor)?

I think that the vast majority of these kids REALLY want to win. And I think they are willing to do whatever they know how to do to win. But I think they aren't being given the necessary instruction from their coaches on how to play team defense or how to run a structured offense. So the only thing they know how to work on is their one-on-one game. So these kids are coming to college woefully unprepared to play a team game. They learn that in college as the quality of coaching and the degree of continuity improves. That's why we can see a guy like Redick go from a gunner and defensive liability as a freshman to being an extremely well-rounded player on both ends as a senior.

In decades past, these players' limitations would get masked by sitting the bench as freshmen. Before the era of early entry, good teams had juniors and seniors who were about as talented and way more well-coached than the incoming freshmen. So the freshmen sat. Now, those elite talents are more and more likely to be gone before their junior and senior year, and as such the freshmen are more and more likely to have to play major roles immediately. And that results in their unpreparedness being exposed. So the one-and-done culture (which shuffles the best talent to the NBA sooner) serves to magnify the issue of unpreparedness caused by the AAU culture (which sends less prepared players to college).

[-jk]

I tend to disagree with Coach K on the specifics of the point about AAU culture and its effect on players. I don't think it de-emphasizes winning. These kids, before AAU exploded, were playing tons and tons of pickup games anyway. They want to win those pickup games just like they want to win those AAU tournaments. Instead of desensitization to losing, I think what the AAU culture has done is de-emphasized the focus on teamwork that is necessary at the lower levels in order to prepare a kid for college ball. So I think it is more accurate to say that these kids are less prepared as freshman than it is to say that they have been desensitized to winning.

The AAU culture creates tons of games with different players, different coaches, and different opponents. That, by nature, makes developing any sort of continuity difficult. So if you're playing with regularly-changing teammates, how can you expect to develop an understanding of teamwork and trust in your teammates? And if you're playing against teams with regularly changing teammates who also will face the same troubles developing teamwork and trust, how can you get the lessons (typically gained through losing) that enforce the need for better understanding of teamwork (on both ends of the floor)?

I think that the vast majority of these kids REALLY want to win. And I think they are willing to do whatever they know how to do to win. But I think they aren't being given the necessary instruction from their coaches on how to play team defense or how to run a structured offense. So the only thing they know how to work on is their one-on-one game. So these kids are coming to college woefully unprepared to play a team game. They learn that in college as the quality of coaching and the degree of continuity improves. That's why we can see a guy like Redick go from a gunner and defensive liability as a freshman to being an extremely well-rounded player on both ends as a senior.

In decades past, these players' limitations would get masked by sitting the bench as freshmen. Before the era of early entry, good teams had juniors and seniors who were about as talented and way more well-coached than the incoming freshmen. So the freshmen sat. Now, those elite talents are more and more likely to be gone before their junior and senior year, and as such the freshmen are more and more likely to have to play major roles immediately. And that results in their unpreparedness being exposed. So the one-and-done culture (which shuffles the best talent to the NBA sooner) serves to magnify the issue of unpreparedness caused by the AAU culture (which sends less prepared players to college).

I think you missed K's point. In pick up games, the winners keep the court. You win or sit. No one wants to sit. Different mentality than AAU where you play 3 or 4 games in a day, regardless.

-jk

[gumbomoop]

[Yet again I'm having trouble with the "reply with quote" function when trying to quote bedeviled, but no such problem with any other poster this thread. So I'm putting bedeviled in with nmduke2001 as an Area 51/Roswell suspect.]

On bedeviled's comments re Quinn, and especially Krzyzewski's comment that Quinn's best talent is shooting - K has been quoted on some other thread as having said, maybe to Jabari: "It isn't personal. It's the truth." It appears that K gradually came to believe that Quinn was not an excellent PG. Yes, he made some wonderful alley-oop passes, but couldn't drive and dish, and was inconsistent even in getting the ball to Jabari with a simple 45-degree pass from out on the wing.

Coach Wojciechowski said at some point in the season, re Quinn's head-hanging, I think, that "Quinn has a big personality." I inferred that this referred to Quinn's heartfelt desire to make big plays, and to be a leader. I've no idea why he hasn't reached the potential he was thought to possess [passive voice here, to protect the innocent and the guilty]. Maybe his HS injury took away some explosiveness. Maybe his court vision/sense hasn't sufficiently improved in college.

Whatever, some big questions for Quinn going forward are: what does the staff now think the truth is about Quinn's strengths and weaknesses, how will that determine the role the staff sees for him during his senior year, and how will his "big personality" adapt?

On one of the Looking Forward threads, I opined that no matter who starts, Quinn would get 28-30 mpg. I don't interpret K's comments about Quinn and Tyus to mean that Quinn will get absolutely no minutes at PG, but it's pretty clear that as of this moment, the staff thinks Tyus will be the main PG. I've no problem seeing Quinn and Tyus play big minutes together, so far as O is concerned. D? I don't know. I've no problem with perimeter small-ball for some [but not big] minutes, so far as O is concerned. D? A problem.

I'd now, just now, guess that Quinn will not play 30 mpg, maybe more like 22-25, all the more likely if Justise - supposed to be a strong, smart defender - gets significant minutes as a traditional wing/SF. Or if Matt improves noticeably, and his minutes rise a bit, or a lot.

How will Quinn adapt to this emerging - not certain but likely - truth? Will Quinn, with his big personality, be, a la Andre, a happy senior? [By which I do not imply - so please do not infer - that he will be unhappy. Rather, I mean to say, how Quinn responds to the likelihood that he will not be "the PG for Duke" during his senior season promises to be a compelling story line going forward.]

[CDu]

First, I got the sense from K's comments that he is pretty sure that Jabari is gone.

Second, as good as Jabari is on the offensive end, he is not dominant on both ends, and not a complete game changer like Lebron. The best center can be. I assume that the team would still have to adapt to Okafor, including Jabari, since Okafor is (presumably) bringing a dimension that has not been seen at Duke in a long time.

Third, dreaming of Okafor at the 5 and Jabari at the 4 feels a little like dreaming of a full season of Kyrie . . .

Given that we are still recruiting a likely one-and-doner at PF in Myles Turner, I think it's safe to say that Coach K expects Parker to go pro. I think he'd love to have Parker for another year, but I doubt that he expects it. And, frankly, I think that the odds have been very much against a Parker return from the beginning. He was going to be a top-5 pick if he went pro this year, and there are VERY few guys who turn that down.

As for Okafor, I'm not sure that I'd say he's necessarily dominant on the defensive end. He certainly isn't going to get pushed around out there, and he's undoubtedly going to be a strong rebounder. Heck, maybe he'll even be a shot-changer with his size. But he's not exactly the quickest or most explosive of big men. If we ask him to play hedge and recover defense, is he going to be able to get out on the ballhandler and still have the quickness to recover to the paint? Is he going to have the lateral quickness to handle switches whenever they occur? Is he going to be any more prepared than Parker was in terms of team defensive concepts?

I have high expectations for Okafor, just like I did for Parker. But I'm not sure I'm ready to say he'll be a dominant presence on both ends of the floor just yet.

That being said, I can't imagine a better offensive partnership at PF/C than Parker and Okafor. So even if the two could be adequate in terms of defense, that would be an absolutely amazing front line. But I suspect that will be the stuff of dreams rather than reality.

[gumbomoop]

Given that we are still recruiting a likely one-and-doner at PF in Myles Turner, I think it's safe to say that Coach K expects Parker to go pro.

I'll guess that Krzyzewski does still think Jabari will leave, but is not as of right now 100% certain.

Further, I have assumed that if Turner is still considering Duke, he'd surely wait for Jabari to say he's leaving. No reason for Turner to commit right now, nor any reason for Duke not to keep recruiting him. No hurry, give Jabari time to decide first.

[CDu]

I'll guess that Krzyzewski does still think Jabari will leave, but is not as of right now 100% certain.

Further, I have assumed that if Turner is still considering Duke, he'd surely wait for Jabari to say he's leaving. No reason for Turner to commit right now, nor any reason for Duke not to keep recruiting him. No hurry, give Jabari time to decide first.

I would agree wholeheartedly with both of those statements.

[SoCalDukeFan]

For me the unasked question was "What happened to the 5-5 sub pattern."

Our two biggest problems, as I gathered from the conference, were lack of leadership and fatigue. Another was that some players had trouble to adjusting to changes the system.

I know that the 5 -5 flies in the face of about everything coaches think they should do. It looked like K had to hold his nose to even try it. I saw Steve Lavin do it at UCLA and thought it was stupid at the time.

But, we played good games when we tried it.

The "starting five" would have played less minutes and been more rested at the end of each game, reduce fatigue factor.

Players on each unit had well defined roles, and in Rasheed and Quinn's case more like what the were asked to do last year.

Lack of leadership may have been less of an issue. I think the units would have developed a certain cohesion and also that Tyler could lead the "starting five" and Rasheed appeared to be leading the other five.

Also would have made us a little harder for other teams to prepare. Mercer knew just what to do.

Why did K hold the press conference? My guess is that he, like most everyone else, is trying to figure out why this team lost so many ACC games and could not advance in the NCAAT. He figured it out in his mind and wanted to clear the air. He may be running into some negative recruiting that he won't be there when 2015 recruits are juniors or seniors and wanted to get that off the table.

SoCal

[Troublemaker]

That being said, I can't imagine a better offensive partnership at PF/C than Parker and Okafor. So even if the two could be adequate in terms of defense, that would be an absolutely amazing front line. But I suspect that will be the stuff of dreams rather than reality.

I agree. I also wouldn't rule out (not that you are) Jabari playing a lot of SF if he were to return. I agree with you that he's more of a college 4 than a college 3 size-wise, rebounding-wise, and scoring-wise (inside/outside game). But, for whatever season, he wasn't a good college 4 defensively, and that could trigger a move to SF, especially if one of the attractions to returning were to practice defense on the wing, where he would defend as a pro. If he slimmed down a bit and played at 225 lbs, could that work, or at least work better than when he was defending as a 4? Very possibly.

[CDu]

I agree. I also wouldn't rule out (not that you are) Jabari playing a lot of SF if he were to return. I agree with you that he's more of a college 4 than a college 3 size-wise, rebounding-wise, and scoring-wise (inside/outside game). But, for whatever season, he wasn't a good college 4 defensively, and that could trigger a move to SF, especially if one of the attractions to returning were to practice defense on the wing, where he would defend as a pro. If he slimmed down a bit and played at 225 lbs, could that work, or at least work better than when he was defending as a 4? Very possibly.

I would probably rule it out. Given (a) the depth of talent we will have on the perimeter and (b) the fact that Parker isn't a terribly quick player, I don't see having him defend guards (many if not most "SF" in college are guards), I don't think we would see Parker at SF next year.

Putting Parker at SF would mean sitting one of our quicker players (Cook, Sulaimon, T. Jones) and playing one of our less quick players (Plumlee, Jefferson). Doesn't seem like a wise tradeoff to me.

I mean, if we had a TON of big men and few options on the perimeter and if Parker dropped 15 pounds, maybe I could see it. But we aren't exactly deep in the frontcourt next year and we're already facing a minutes crunch on the perimeter.

If Parker returns, he'll be playing PF. And I think that with another year of work with Coach K he would be a capable defender.

[Edouble]

I agree. I also wouldn't rule out (not that you are) Jabari playing a lot of SF if he were to return. I agree with you that he's more of a college 4 than a college 3 size-wise, rebounding-wise, and scoring-wise (inside/outside game). But, for whatever season, he wasn't a good college 4 defensively, and that could trigger a move to SF, especially if one of the attractions to returning were to practice defense on the wing, where he would defend as a pro. If he slimmed down a bit and played at 225 lbs, could that work, or at least work better than when he was defending as a 4? Very possibly.

I don't think it's fair to say Jabari was not a good defensive 4, as he guarded the other teams 5 so much of the time.

I don't know if I can see Jabari playing much 3, were he to return. We pretty much built the team around him this year and moved him to a less perimeter oriented capacity after he started the year off doing more work on the perimeter. It seemed like his jump shooting (particularly from behind the arc) was cut back and he was encouraged to score down low more. I'm not sure if he is quick enough on defense to defend on the wing.

As a team overall, I think we're better off having Jabari defend the 4 and have Justise on the wing, as opposed to having Amile defend the 4 and have Jabari on the wing. Actually, from a strictly defensive standpoint we are probably best off having Justise defend the 3 and Amile defend the 4, which is what is going to happen anyway, since Jabari will be playing in Boston next year.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Why did K hold the press conference? My guess is that he, like most everyone else, is trying to figure out why this team lost so many ACC games and could not advance in the NCAAT. He figured it out in his mind and wanted to clear the air. He may be running into some negative recruiting that he won't be there when 2015 recruits are juniors or seniors and wanted to get that off the table.

SoCal

I wonder, since the beginning theme was "I'll be here 5 years at least", is if maybe the conference was for recruits as much as fans. Hell, every year we have the "who will replace K" discussion, because each year we wonder if that time is fast approaching. (Hopefully that thread won't show up as often this year!)
So how would you like to be a recruit staring at your mail, excited at it being full of Duke letters, yet not sure since you are thinking the legend might not be there for all four of your years? He just said to every player on our radar, "I'm your guy and I will be for the long term."

[Edouble]

I wonder, since the beginning theme was "I'll be here 5 years at least", is if maybe the conference was for recruits as much as fans.

Cal would have just tweeted it.