INDIANAPOLIS — It wasn’t that long ago that people openly questioned whether Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski could ever win with one-and-done guys.
I was among them.
Back in September, I wrote a column called, “Coach K Must Figure Out the One-and-Done Thing.”
The premise seemed reasonable.
Entering this season, Duke had featured three one-and-dones beginning with the 2010-11 season — Kyrie Irving, Austin Rivers and Jabari Parker — and during that time the Blue Devils were 2-3 in the NCAA Tournament with those players.
In that same span, John Calipari and Kentucky went 15-2 in the Big Dance, winning the 2012 NCAA Tournament and reaching the championship game last season.
“Everyone talked about Duke not being one of the elite programs, which is nonsense, and Coach and the rest of the guys not being at this level anymore,” Duke assistant Nate James told me in the Duke locker room after the Blue Devils beat Wisconsin, 68-63, at Lucas Oil Stadium to win their fifth national championship.
What’s more, virtually everyone had Kentucky and their armada of nine McDonald’s All-Americans cutting down the nets this year — before the season and during their run up to a historic 38-0 start.
Another Kentucky title seemed virtually inevitable for much of the season.
But of course that all ended here on Saturday when Frank Kaminsky and an experienced Wisconsin team stunned the Wildcats and sent Big Blue Nation packing.
But by beating that same Wisconsin team and winning his fifth NCAA championship with a freshman Most Outstanding Player in Tyus Jones (23 points, 5 rebounds, 1 turnover) and three other frosh — Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow and Grayson Allen — playing critical roles, Coach K now looks like he’s figured out the one-and-done thing pretty good.
“The ability to adapt is key in everything,” Krzyzewski said on the podium after earning his 1,018th career victory and moving into second place behind John Wooden on the all-time titles list. “I think I’ve adapted well. I really believe in the last decade having the honor to coach our nation’s team has helped me adapt more.”
Duke’s four freshman — three of whom are projected as first-round picks — combined for 60 points and 19 rebounds.
That’s the most points ever by a group of freshmen in the championship game.
For Okafor, Winslow and Jones, it may have been the last college game of their lives.
“This group, even though we were so talented, not many people thought we could win,” James said. “Everybody here had one team pegged as the national champion to so to have our freshmen, our team that’s led by one senior [Quinn Cook] and a junior [Amile Jefferson], everyone counted us out. And obviously all of the adversity we went through this year, you know we were the forgotten guy.
“And our team, we never let that affect us so no matter how good they are it’s hard to win with freshmen but they definitely were mature beyond their years and they went out and made plays.”
While Kentucky and Calipari have consistently made runs to the Final Four with an army of one-and dones — four in the last five years with different groups of freshmen — this was the first time Duke was able to do it.
And not only did they reach the Final Four.
They won it all.
Duke’s last title – also here in Indianapolis — came in 2010 with an experienced team led by Jon Scheyer, Nolan Smith, Kyle Singer and Brian Zoubek.
“The 2010 they were senior-laden group,” James said. “We were not pegged to go far either but the closeness and the maturity of that 2010 group was unbelievable. Those guys were amazing, so it feels good, two completely different teams but two teams that were definitely deserving of winning it.”
Still while Calipari has openly said his goal is to get guys to the NBA — announcing Monday that at least five, and maybe seven, of his guys were headed to the NBA — James said Duke hasn’t consciously changed its philosophy on one-and-done guys
“We don’t recruit one-and-done guys,” James said. “I don’t really understand that. We recruit great talent, terrific kids, kids who want to go to school and believe and buy in. Now if they have the talent to leave after one year, then so be it.
“And you don’t win it every year. You have years where you have unbelievable talent and you don’t win. That’s just the beauty of the game, the beauty of the tournament. We don’t go about it thinking we can’t win with quote-unquote one-and-done guys. We’re a team and unfortunately we didn’t get it done those years [with Irving, Rivers and Parker].”
But they got it done this year, making Coach K now the king of one-and-dones.
At least for this season.
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