Building the empire

By AL FEATHERSTON : The Herald-Sun
alf@herald-sun.com
Sep 30, 2001 : 3:47 pm ET

DURHAM -- Mike Krzyzewski always has understood the limits of his coaching ability.

"I found that strategies work better with great players," he said. "It’s amazing how good my man-to-man defense and motion offense were with Johnny Dawkins out there."

When Krzyzewski arrived at Duke in the spring of 1980, he didn’t find many great players on the Blue Devils roster. He did inherit Gene Banks and Kenny Dennard, two outstanding college forwards, but they were seniors. The only other ACC-quality player left at Duke was junior wing guard Vince Taylor.

Krzyzewski knew he’d have to prove himself as a recruiter before he’d get the chance to prove himself as a coach. That was the big question mark hanging over the young coach from Army. The military academies don’t recruit the nation’s top prospects. Except for one year as a graduate assistant at Indiana, when Krzyzewski didn’t recruit off campus, Duke’s new coach had not experienced big-time recruiting.

He didn’t have time to prove the skeptics wrong that first spring.

The recruiting season was pretty much over before Krzyzewski was introduced as Duke’s new coach. Former coach Bill Foster had been recruiting guard Fred Brown from New York and Minnesota big man Jim Peterson, but both backed off when Foster left for South Carolina.

The new coach was lucky to land unknown Doug McNeely from Texas.

Krzyzewski’s real test came a year later, when he targeted a quintet of excellent prospects and seemed to be in position to bring in a dynamite class. Instead, the young coach just missed on future All-American Chris Mullin (St. John’s), big men Bill Wennington (St. John’s) and Uwe Blab (Indiana) and forwards Rodney Williams (Florida) and Jim Miller (Virginia).

"I felt like we had lost five straight one-point games," Krzyzewski told John Feinstein, who wrote about the coach’s frustration in an article for Inside Sports. "I let all of the attention recruiting gets in the ACC get to me. I wanted to shove it up a few people’s rumps because they said I couldn’t recruit."

Krzyzewski did just that a year later, when he followed his year of frustration with a recruiting class that The Sporting News would rate No. 1 in the country. Everything fell into place. He got early commitments from Nebraska forward Bill Jackman and Illinois swingman Weldon Williams — two players who wouldn’t amount to much at Duke, but two nationally recognized targets who served to erase the idea that Krzyzewski couldn’t recruit.

Their decisions also gave the Blue Devils coach recruiting momentum that began to swell as California big man Jay Bilas; Washington, D.C., guard Johnny Dawkins; Arizona forward Mark Alarie; and, finally, North Carolina swingman David Henderson joined the class.

"I felt last year that being close showed that we could recruit," Krzyzewski said that spring. "We looked for ways we could improve, and we changed a few things. I’m not satisfied because we showed any people [we could recruit]. I just feel good because we got the people we wanted."

Indeed, Krzyzewski had gotten the people who would push his program to the top level of college basketball. As freshmen, Dawkins, Alarie and company would be starters on a team that finished 11-17.

They were 37-3 as seniors, and four members of that class started in the national title game. Those players would always hold a special place in Krzyzewski’s heart.

"They believed in me before it was fashionable to do so," Krzyzewski said.

After 1982, no one would question Krzyzewski’s ability to recruit. True, he hasn’t gotten every prospect he’s pursued, but he’s never failed to keep the talent flowing into his Duke program. Dawkins was the first of 32 McDonald’s All-Americans to sign with Krzyzewski — only UNC’s Dean Smith has landed more.