Back off, Coach K, for the good of the game
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</TD><TD noWrap>Feb. 8, 2006
By Gregg Doyel
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
Tell Gregg your opinion!
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</NOSCRIPT> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD width=10> </TD><TD>[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]
<TABLE style="MARGIN: 5px 0px 5px 5px" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD style="PADDING-LEFT: 8px; BORDER-LEFT: #cccccc 1px solid"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- T9216412 --><!-- Sesame Modified: 02/08/2006 12:19:57 --><!-- sversion: 8 $Updated: swanny$ -->Duke's Mike Krzyzewski is a great coach, a great leader and a great endorser for American Express. But it's time for Coach K to be something greater.
A great man.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=200 align=left><TBODY><TR><TD width=200> </TD><TD width=15> </TD></TR><TR><TD width=200></TD><TD width=15> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Krzyzewski has a passion and a love for college basketball, and for six days and 20 hours each week, he's a wonderful ambassador. But for those other four hours, his four most visible hours -- two for this game, two for that one -- he's awful. He's noxious. He is, in fact, an eroding influence on the sport he helped build.
Yes, I'm saying it: For four hours each week, Mike Krzyzewski is bad for college basketball.
The background is the ACC's one-game suspension of the officials who helped screw Florida State out of a win Saturday at Duke. Those officials gave a double technical to FSU center Alexander Johnson and Duke's Shelden Williams when only Williams deserved it. The technicals counted as personal fouls -- Johnson's fifth -- and he was disqualified with more than nine minutes left. Duke won 97-96 in overtime.
Did officials intentionally help Duke by intentionally hurting Florida State? No way. That call, that game -- Duke shot 41 free throws to Florida State's 11, even though FSU was attacking the basket -- wasn't evidence of a pro-Duke conspiracy. Anyone who believes otherwise should leave. We've got a bigger issue to address than your favorite fable.
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>The blown technical wasn't the problem, but a symptom. Other symptoms were late pro-Duke calls involving Williams' physical post defense -- first against Boston College's Tyrese Rice, then FSU's Todd Galloway -- that helped Duke win games last week.
Again, those are symptoms -- but not the sickness. However, in a strange and potentially fortunate twist, the cold and the cure are one and the same: Mike Krzyzewski.
Krzyzewski is the problem, but he's also the fix.
This has to be a collaborative effort, solving the officiating issues that taint Duke games. And Duke games have definitely become tainted. Along with J.J. Redick's jumper, the impact of officiating is a major storyline whenever Duke plays. And that, people, is terrible for the game.
And that, people, is Krzyzewski's fault. Watch him from start to finish. Watch him work the officials. Watch him spew and curse and sneer. It's ugly.
Not that ugly is the problem. Most coaches work officials. Gary Williams looks deranged. Jim Boeheim looks ill. Karl Hobbs looks persecuted. But Krzyzewski is different: He's Krzyzewski.
Name the five most powerful people in basketball. Coach K has to be on that list. He's the head coach of the NCAA's top program over the past 25 years; he's the head coach of the next U.S. Olympic team; he could be the head coach of any NBA team he wanted, most recently the Los Angeles Lakers. He's enormous. Game officials? They're human. They spend two hours getting worked over by Krzyzewski, and like a boxer absorbing gut punches for 14 rounds, the impact is crushing. It has to be. Krzyzewski is an immortal. Officials aren't.
For two hours twice a week, Krzyzewski preys on that stuff. That's how the FSU-Duke officials buckled and gave Johnson a bad technical. That's how two straight 50-50 calls in the final seconds went Duke's way against Boston College and then FSU. Coach K spends two hours winning those two seconds.
Krzyzewski says things, abominable things, that other coaches can't. Listen to him. Read his lips. Coach K gets away with it because he's Coach K. Need a reminder? Read the floor at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Krzyzewski, who wouldn't be made available for comment, has become what he once despised -- a latter-day Dean Smith. On Jan. 21, 1984, after uneven officiating cost Duke a win against Smith's North Carolina dynasty, Krzyzewski unloaded in his postgame news conference.
"I want to tell you something," he said. "... You cannot allow people to go around pointing at officials and yelling at them without technicals being called. That is just not allowed. So let's get some things straight around here and quit the double standard that exists in this league, all right?"
Good idea then, and good idea now. But it can't start with officials. They've been pushed around too long, too mercilessly, by the biggest bully on the block. They're not going to stand up to Krzyzewski now.
It's up to Krzyzewski to make the first move. To pipe down. To back off. He has become the biggest star in his universe, and it takes a great man to build that base of power.
But it takes a small man to wield it the wrong way.
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By Gregg Doyel
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
Tell Gregg your opinion!
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<TABLE style="MARGIN: 5px 0px 5px 5px" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD style="PADDING-LEFT: 8px; BORDER-LEFT: #cccccc 1px solid"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- T9216412 --><!-- Sesame Modified: 02/08/2006 12:19:57 --><!-- sversion: 8 $Updated: swanny$ -->Duke's Mike Krzyzewski is a great coach, a great leader and a great endorser for American Express. But it's time for Coach K to be something greater.
A great man.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=200 align=left><TBODY><TR><TD width=200> </TD><TD width=15> </TD></TR><TR><TD width=200></TD><TD width=15> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Krzyzewski has a passion and a love for college basketball, and for six days and 20 hours each week, he's a wonderful ambassador. But for those other four hours, his four most visible hours -- two for this game, two for that one -- he's awful. He's noxious. He is, in fact, an eroding influence on the sport he helped build.
Yes, I'm saying it: For four hours each week, Mike Krzyzewski is bad for college basketball.
The background is the ACC's one-game suspension of the officials who helped screw Florida State out of a win Saturday at Duke. Those officials gave a double technical to FSU center Alexander Johnson and Duke's Shelden Williams when only Williams deserved it. The technicals counted as personal fouls -- Johnson's fifth -- and he was disqualified with more than nine minutes left. Duke won 97-96 in overtime.
Did officials intentionally help Duke by intentionally hurting Florida State? No way. That call, that game -- Duke shot 41 free throws to Florida State's 11, even though FSU was attacking the basket -- wasn't evidence of a pro-Duke conspiracy. Anyone who believes otherwise should leave. We've got a bigger issue to address than your favorite fable.
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javascript:submitPoll();
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>The blown technical wasn't the problem, but a symptom. Other symptoms were late pro-Duke calls involving Williams' physical post defense -- first against Boston College's Tyrese Rice, then FSU's Todd Galloway -- that helped Duke win games last week.
Again, those are symptoms -- but not the sickness. However, in a strange and potentially fortunate twist, the cold and the cure are one and the same: Mike Krzyzewski.
Krzyzewski is the problem, but he's also the fix.
This has to be a collaborative effort, solving the officiating issues that taint Duke games. And Duke games have definitely become tainted. Along with J.J. Redick's jumper, the impact of officiating is a major storyline whenever Duke plays. And that, people, is terrible for the game.
And that, people, is Krzyzewski's fault. Watch him from start to finish. Watch him work the officials. Watch him spew and curse and sneer. It's ugly.
Not that ugly is the problem. Most coaches work officials. Gary Williams looks deranged. Jim Boeheim looks ill. Karl Hobbs looks persecuted. But Krzyzewski is different: He's Krzyzewski.
Name the five most powerful people in basketball. Coach K has to be on that list. He's the head coach of the NCAA's top program over the past 25 years; he's the head coach of the next U.S. Olympic team; he could be the head coach of any NBA team he wanted, most recently the Los Angeles Lakers. He's enormous. Game officials? They're human. They spend two hours getting worked over by Krzyzewski, and like a boxer absorbing gut punches for 14 rounds, the impact is crushing. It has to be. Krzyzewski is an immortal. Officials aren't.
For two hours twice a week, Krzyzewski preys on that stuff. That's how the FSU-Duke officials buckled and gave Johnson a bad technical. That's how two straight 50-50 calls in the final seconds went Duke's way against Boston College and then FSU. Coach K spends two hours winning those two seconds.
Krzyzewski says things, abominable things, that other coaches can't. Listen to him. Read his lips. Coach K gets away with it because he's Coach K. Need a reminder? Read the floor at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Krzyzewski, who wouldn't be made available for comment, has become what he once despised -- a latter-day Dean Smith. On Jan. 21, 1984, after uneven officiating cost Duke a win against Smith's North Carolina dynasty, Krzyzewski unloaded in his postgame news conference.
"I want to tell you something," he said. "... You cannot allow people to go around pointing at officials and yelling at them without technicals being called. That is just not allowed. So let's get some things straight around here and quit the double standard that exists in this league, all right?"
Good idea then, and good idea now. But it can't start with officials. They've been pushed around too long, too mercilessly, by the biggest bully on the block. They're not going to stand up to Krzyzewski now.
It's up to Krzyzewski to make the first move. To pipe down. To back off. He has become the biggest star in his universe, and it takes a great man to build that base of power.
But it takes a small man to wield it the wrong way.
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