More Hating on Coach K

[amittal]

Even when he's coaching the USA basketball team, people hate on him. This is absurd.

http://www....com/blogs/2008/08/04/what-happened-to-coach-ks-.../

[MoneyInDaBank]

Poor guy, those eyes do look crazy though.

Dukies forever!

[quickgtp]

Amittal you are 100% correct. Absurd.

It does worry me though because this is a simple reminder that K looks tired already. I'm afraid he is exhausting himself and the Duke team will pay the price from this. Just a thought.....

[dukeENG2003]

I actually found it kinda funny. . .

No need to get all bent out of shape over this

[BD80]

... the Duke team will pay the price from this. ...

Yep, having Coaches K, Collins and Wojo work for a couple of months along side of three of the best coaches in America and against the best coaches in the world is bound to take its toll. Being exposed to Tony Ronzone and his unequaled international connections will also be a drain on the program.

Even losing Coach Dawkins may work out well, as Wojo and Collins will each have to make big steps up in the program this year. Think they might have some confidence having just coached the best players in the world?

Team USA has been playing the "Duke style" offense of spread the floor and look for drive and kick opportunities. Coach K is witnessing first hand how the best players in the world execute the offense and how the best defenses and the best coaches in the world react to it.

As for recruiting, the Duke staff hasn't closed up shop, Coach K is the only one "inactive." I am certain Wojo and Collins are working the phones and milking the Olympic experience with recruits. We also still have two recruiters in the US eligible to travel and contact recruits. They may even be talking to Coach K about recruiting. I suspect that we may even pick up a foreign recruit out of this process. In sum, the potential loss of one recruit who can't understand Coach K's commitment to team USA will pale in comparison to the added cache for Coach K and the program.

As for exhaustion, is this really more exhausting than the recruiting trail? Team USA is undoubtedly staying in deluxe accommodations and has a staff of administrators handling all of the details. This isn't even like a foreign trip for the Duke team where Coach K would have to watch over a bunch of teenage boys. The "burden" of handling the world press is more publicity for Coach K and Duke.

[quickgtp]

so you are essentially saying that coaching the USA team and recruiting college players in the summer takes about the same level of energy? WOW, that might be the most off-the-wall comment i've read in a while!

[Inonehand]

so you are essentially saying that coaching the USA team and recruiting college players in the summer takes about the same level of energy? WOW, that might be the most off-the-wall comment i've read in a while!

I think what he is saying is it ain't brain surgery, it is coaching. He's already good at it and the positives outweigh the negatives. The sky isn't falling, it's just pollution in Beijing.

[balkan boy]

Tired of the paid journalists railing on K and Duke, but can't say that I can get myself too worked up over some guy with a blog messing around, even if I don't agree with him.

and I reserve my right to make fun of Roy if he somehow is named the next Olympic coach....

Balkan Boy

[hc5duke]

Amittal (amittal@complex.com) is most likely a complex.com spammer
http://www.politicalforum.com/elections-campaigns/28744-jack-nicholson-commercial-hillary.html
http://www.gamefray.com/gamers/akmittal

[bigj4194]

this is something I don't know how you can even take seriously

[quickgtp]

I guess it's impossible to sense sarcasm in a post such as my original one.

[BD80]

so you are essentially saying that coaching the USA team and recruiting college players in the summer takes about the same level of energy? WOW, that might be the most off-the-wall comment i've read in a while!

Hmm, what about Skip? Since his death, there have been a flurry of articles about the stress of recruiting on the road. I would prefer to coach team USA and face the press and stay in a luxury hotel for the duration, rather than schlep through small airports for a month to shuttle around to various high school gyms, never to unpack for more than a day. But, just my opinion.

[quickgtp]

I am trying to see what you are stating, but hiking around the world and coaching the USA team, all the while staying somewhat in the recruiting game seems a little but more tiring than just the standard recruiting trip.

[BD80]

I am trying to see what you are stating, but hiking around the world and coaching the USA team, all the while staying somewhat in the recruiting game seems a little but more tiring than just the standard recruiting trip.

Team USA will be in the same hotel for the next three weeks. Coach K has SIX assistant coaches (4 of which are head coaches, 2 pro, 2 college) for TWELVE players. Team USA has administators handling all scheduling and non-coaching matters. I would find this less exhausting than changing hotels every day, driving to the airport (sometimes hours), returning the rental car, waiting for a flight, changing planes, renting another car, driving to the hotel or directly to the gym - grabbing fast food on the way, for the payoff of sitting on bleachers for several hours so a kid can see you in the stands, only to drive back to motel to crash and start all over the next day.

Maybe it is all of the football games,the lacrosse, gymnastic and volleyball tournaments and cheerleading competitions I have suffered through to support my kids - but I believe I'd find Coach K's gig much less exhausting. Of course, I have never coached an Olympic team or faced the world press, so I could be wrong.

[greybeard]

Interesting by-play about speaking out on political issues. LeBron and Kobe had been awash with outspokenness about China's roll in arming the forces of darkness in Dafur. A word from K and now mums the word; we're here to play basketball, is the mantra now.

Is this good? It is what it is, I suppose.

Sally Jenkins has a piece in Today's Washington Post on the selling of the Olympics to 12 corporations. She make the case that those corporate sponsors have bought the media's silence on issues of import, including how China has walled the media in (or out depending on how you look at it). Terrific piece of crossover journalism. Worth a read. When Sally is good, she is great. This goes well beyond that, imo.