Duke to Dominican Republic (cancelled; knee)

[awhom111]

With the loss to Mercer, maybe the DR team decided they wanted to pull out of playing Duke; and with the team possibly looking good during these last 3 days of practice, K may have decided that the team wasn't going to get much out of the playing the DR team as he might have initially hoped; and thought this was the best time to do the surgery. Everyone has been going hard (including the coaching staff with recruiting as well); and decided this would be a good time to give the team and coaching staff a break before gearing up at the end of September to have a strong season.

With that said, i would have preferred the team to continue practicing and let Capel take over the reins for this trip while K had the surgery; but I trust Coach to have a good reason for not doing that, which leads me back to my original thought that maybe the DR team wanted to back out; or something else that had nothing to do with K's knee operation as being the root cause of the team cancelling the trip.

There is no boxscore so it is tough to tell, but I believe Mercer played something well below the strength of the team we would have faced. Since the Dominican league season is still going right now, I think that they only played against players who were not in the Finals, which features a number of the strongest players. If we had gone on this tour, the second game would have been much tougher than the first since more players would have been available by then. Unfortunately, the organizational level of the Dominican federation is fairly low (they do not even have an official website) so they cannot afford to have as long a preparation as other national teams, especially those in Asia and Europe.

[Atldukie79]

The eclipse will follow Coach K...

[BD80]

The eclipse will follow Coach K...

Coach K causes the eclipse ...

[rocketeli]

been thinking about this development and I see three possible scenarios delineated by a single word change:

The DR trip is cancelled SO K has surgery.
The DR trip is cancelled AND K has surgery.
The DR trip is cancelled BECAUSE K has surgery.

We'll probably never know all the real details especially since, unlike some public figures, Coach K goes out of his way not to embarrass anyone he may be working with now or in the future. So if the trip was actually cancelled because the DR people couldn't get their stuff together we won't hear about it.

I worry more about all this surgery. It's what 6 operations in 16 months, for a 70 year old? I know enough surgeons to know they tend to think that everyone should have surgery every now and then, because it's so healthy and relaxing...but actually surgery is often a major injury to the body and requires a substantial amount of energy to recover from, even for a young person. I'm assuming that some of these surgeries were not done with general anesthesia, as I don't think any anesthesia practice would sign off on that many surgeries for a 70 year old in that time period, but still.
Also I'm not an orthopod, but I assume a total knee replacement would be done under general? At Coach K's age that does add another level of complexity to recovery.

[devildeac]

been thinking about this development and I see three possible scenarios delineated by a single word change:

The DR trip is cancelled SO K has surgery.
The DR trip is cancelled AND K has surgery.
The DR trip is cancelled BECAUSE K has surgery.

We'll probably never know all the real details especially since, unlike some public figures, Coach K goes out of his way not to embarrass anyone he may be working with now or in the future. So if the trip was actually cancelled because the DR people couldn't get their stuff together we won't hear about it.

I worry more about all this surgery. It's what 6 operations in 16 months, for a 70 year old? I know enough surgeons to know they tend to think that everyone should have surgery every now and then, because it's so healthy and relaxing...but actually surgery is often a major injury to the body and requires a substantial amount of energy to recover from, even for a young person. I'm assuming that some of these surgeries were not done with general anesthesia, as I don't think any anesthesia practice would sign off on that many surgeries for a 70 year old in that time period, but still.
Also I'm not an orthopod, but I assume a total knee replacement would be done under general? At Coach K's age that does add another level of complexity to recovery.

From Luke DeCock in yesterday's N&O:

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/s...166520472.html

Another N&O piece from yesterday:

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/c...166501922.html

From Steve Wiseman yesterday (but I think it is in the print edition this AM):

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/c...166537817.html

[weezie]

Coach K causes the eclipse ...

And no one will ever eclipse Coach K.

[Philadukie]

Get well soon K!

I'm not prone to conspiracy theories and tend to think the true explanation of why the trip was canceled was the one we got.

That said, I also wonder if some concern about the North Korea situation played into it. Not that it was dispositive, but it was like "you know what, I need a knee replacement and, yes the team could still go, but we don't want to be overseas and trying to get home while an international military crisis is unfolding (as remote as it may be). Let's just scrap it."

[flyingdutchdevil]

Get well soon K!

I'm not prone to conspiracy theories and tend to think the true explanation of why the trip was canceled was the one we got.

That said, I also wonder if some concern about the North Korea situation played into it. Not that it was dispositive, but it was like "you know what, I need a knee replacement and, yes the team could still go, but we don't want to be overseas and trying to get home while an international military crisis is unfolding (as remote as it may be). Let's just scrap it."

If this had any barring on the cancellation, I will have lost a ton of respect for the Duke program.

I really hope you're joking.

[Troublemaker]

Two other maybes (that I don't necessarily believe, but just throwing it out there):

- Maybe, for whatever reason, the DR team would find it insulting that we'd play them without our head coach.

- Maybe, for whatever reason, Duke wants the freshmen accustomed to how it's going to be during the season (Coach K as head coach, Coach Capel as Associate HC) and don't want to start their careers doing it another way.

[tbyers11]

Two other maybes (that I don't necessarily believe, but just throwing it out there):

- Maybe, for whatever reason, the DR team would find it insulting that we'd play them without our head coach.

- Maybe, for whatever reason, Duke wants the freshmen accustomed to how it's going to be during the season (Coach K as head coach, Coach Capel as Associate HC) and don't want to start their careers doing it another way.

This is what I've kind of been leaning toward in my head. After all the personnel chaos (players and coaches) last year, I think Coach K wants a single, consistent chain of command and clearly defined roles (as much as possible) all year.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

I'm also in the camp that we should have done the trip with Capel as the coach, because the playing experience sounds like it would be very valuable (and the coaching experience would be valuable for him). But as seems to be the case with all things Duke basketball these days, there is likely a lot going on behind the scenes that we are not aware of and will likely never be aware of - Washington, DC should take some lessons from Coach K on preventing leaks!

Hopefully no one planned a vacation around going to some of the games, though worst case, there are worse places to spend a vacation than the Dominican Republic.

I apologize if someone has addressed this already upthread, but does the fact that we have had some of the bonus practices already prevent us from doing an international trip in the near future?

Most importantly, best of luck to Coach K on the surgery. A colleague who is about 60 and in pretty good shape just had his knee replaced and I know it was a long rehab for him - he was unable to fly for a while and normally travels a lot for work.

[OldPhiKap]

- Maybe, for whatever reason, Duke wants the freshmen accustomed to how it's going to be during the season (Coach K as head coach, Coach Capel as Associate HC) and don't want to start their careers doing it another way.

After the incredible lack of continuity we had last year, I think this is exactly right.

[CDu]

You can ask the question but have no guarantee of an answer from anyone who wants to stay with the program

There is a last days of a long and glorious reign vibe to all of this

It is not about how long Mike Krzyzewski wants to coach; it’s about how long he can – Luke DeCock

http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/s...#storylink=cpy

Yeah, I don't know exactly how close we are to the end of the road with Coach K on the sidelines. But this is yet another sign that it probably isn't too far out in the future.

This is why I bristle at the "let's not get the best players because I want to see our end-of-the-bench guys get to play" argument. Who knows what Duke basketball will look like when Coach K retires? I want to maximize our chances of titles every single year that we still have Coach K running the show.

[UrinalCake]

Wow. 2 hips and now 2 knees. Is he going for the NCAA record for joint replacement surgeries? Get well soon, Coach.

I think it's common practice when someone needs both knees replaced that they only do one, then wait a couple years before doing the second. That way you can handle the recovery for each one.

As for the trip, it's somewhat common for these international trips to get cancelled, though it's usually for other reasons (travel safety concerns are the most common). So I'm sure the NCAA has rules in place for how soon we can take another one.

I guess there's a potential loophole where a team could schedule a trip and then cancel it at the last minute every year, thus earning the extra practices every year. But that would require a deliberate effort to manipulate the system, and would violate the spirit of the NCAA allowing schools to monitor themselves under the assumption that they will act ethically. And surely no school would ever do that...

[Truth&Justise]

Wishing K a speedy recovery. In the meantime, two logistical questions that I haven't seen addressed yet (apologies if they were mentioned elsewhere):

1. We had already started holding the extra practices that are allowed before an international trip. Will cancelling the trip impact the legality of those practices? Will Duke need to adjust the schedule later (i.e. hold three or four fewer practices)?
   
   
2. Does this use up Duke's international trip allotment for the next few years?

[wsb3]

- Maybe, for whatever reason, Duke wants the freshmen accustomed to how it's going to be during the season (Coach K as head coach, Coach Capel as Associate HC) and don't want to start their careers doing it another way.

I asked early in this conversation about why we would not just go ahead with Capel in place. This might be as good a reason as I have heard.

[aimo]

Has Capel been at the practices so far? Just wondering if maybe he's been out on the recruiting trail and hasn't even worked with these guys yet.

[duke79]

This is what I've kind of been leaning toward in my head. After all the personnel chaos (players and coaches) last year, I think Coach K wants a single, consistent chain of command and clearly defined roles (as much as possible) all year.

I'm not sure that any of us know the REAL reason the trip was cancelled (other than what was officially released by Duke) but I'm guessing that your speculation above MAY be close to the truth. Obviously, Coach Capel could take the team on the trip but it seems to me that it would be (sort of) awkward for Duke, the players and even the other coaches. It's too bad the trip was cancelled but certainly not the end of the world.

I hope K has a quick recovery but from friends who have had knee replacement surgery, I know the rehab takes longer than for hip replacement and can be a more arduous recovery. Obviously, basketball is not as much of a contact sport as football, but I'm sure all of the running up and down the court in his youth has taken a toll on K's knee and hip joints. Not surprising he needs to have them replaced.

[wsb3]

I think it's common practice when someone needs both knees replaced that they only do one, then wait a couple years before doing the second. That way you can handle the recovery for each one.

I have no medical knowledge & I did not even sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night but I would guess that it depends on how bad each is. I have a friend who has had both done this year. Pretty much as soon as he could get some support on the first they went right in & did the second. He is four years younger than Coach K. He went to the mountains a couple of weeks ago & shared that he played 18 on consecutive days & was doing great.

He has hopes of returning to the basketball court. Big State fan. Played on the Freshman team back in the day.

[sagegrouse]

I'm not sure that any of us know the REAL reason the trip was cancelled (other than what was officially released by Duke) but I'm guessing that your speculation above MAY be close to the truth. Obviously, Coach Capel could take the team on the trip but it seems to me that it would be (sort of) awkward for Duke, the players and even the other coaches. It's too bad the trip was cancelled but certainly not the end of the world.

I hope K has a quick recovery but from friends who have had knee replacement surgery, I know the rehab takes longer than for hip replacement and can be a more arduous recovery. Obviously, basketball is not as much of a contact sport as football, but I'm sure all of the running up and down the court in his youth has taken a toll on K's knee and hip joints. Not surprising he needs to have them replaced.

It is K's team. It is K's team. It is K's team. Having the first exhibition played under someone else -- even the reincarnation of Red Auerbach --weakens rather than strengthens the team. It would also apply to any other head coach.

See comments on Syracuse's awful record when Boeheim was serving a suspension.