NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 28, 1999

Mike Krzyzewski

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Elton listens. Elton is a willing learner. I think Elton was put in a situation that is going to happen every once in a while now because of so many kids going IN early that kids are going to be given recognition because of a promise of what they can do, not because of what they've done. And in Elton's case, because he didn't play much the year before because of injury, he was already given a lot of recognition. And it's easy for us all to fall into the trap that we -- we're okay now. You know, this is who I am. This is who I need to be. And he just needed to be reminded that he was. It wasn't like any stern talk or anything, it's just hey, you're not in the shape you need to be in; you're not attacking it to the level you need to attack it; you're playing pretty well. We're not gonna want you to not play, but you got to do better than that. God gave you more talent than what you've been showing. And I know you want to make use of it, so here's how and we put him in a program and he's done everything. So that wasn't hard at all. And I expected him to be one of the top players, if not the top player. That's why I told him that.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Makes me first of all, old. But as I walk around here for the last year, I've been reminded that I'm not the young colt I might have been for a short period in my life. It's a great compliment from Jim. I've been really lucky. It's hard for me. I never think of where I fit in anything except how I fit with my own team. And I think still I'm a young coach. I'm 52. I think I have a lot of coaching left in me. You know, I hope we can continue to have a high level of success. I think we can at Duke.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I am in a few States, believe me.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Sometimes you get matched up against a certain opponent. The one thing about the NCAA Tournament, if you win, you end a program's dream that year and the fans' dream. If you're having a good dream and someone wakes you up, you're gonna be mad at them. And we've been able to do that. I mean we were mad at Kentucky last year, they ended up having our dream. It's just the way it is. And thank goodness we've -- both programs have been able to dream a lot.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: He has a great talent and amazing passion for the game. Also in the last year as my associate head coach, he's just assumed more responsibilities. He really loves to teach, and he has great rapport with these kids. He's ready to be a head coach now if someone's smart enough to hire him. I hope they're not. I'd like to keep him. He's ready, no question about that. He'll be an outstanding head coach.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: We were ecstatic about doing that. If you looked at the tape, although I don't have much hang time, if any, I don't have any now but I had a little bit then, I jumped up in elation, by the time I reached the peak of my jump, which is not very long, I immediately thought of Jim, and it was like -- it was kind of a difficult situation. Because I think only a coach knows what the other coach feels. Hopefully we all have empathy for what the other guy is going through. I did at that time. I'm very pleased for him that he's here in the National Championship game, certainly deserving, he's worked hard for it. I hope he doesn't win it. But I'm glad he's here. We want to win it. But you have to have a great deal of admiration for him to keep plugging. And now he's broken down that Final Four barrier, he has a chance to win the National Title.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah, I was there. I was at the game. In fact, I was being interviewed -- I was the head coach at Army, it was my fourth year. I was being interviewed for another position. So it was kind of an exciting time. My best recollection is why are all these people not wanting to be Army officers. (Laughter) I could see Bird and Magic being future generals. You're talking about two of the all-time greats. The thing I remember, there was such an aura there that the two of them brought to the game. I think it was amazing how it showcased our great game, as they have showcased the NBA for so many years afterwards and hopefully somebody in the NBA now understands that they have to do that.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Right.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: It's not so much difficult. It's been incredibly interesting and exciting to coach him because he's showed a couple of things last night that he really hasn't shown all year, a couple of his moves where he went from one side of the bucket to the other. I made fun of him, you know, leading the break, but he does have really good ball skills. He has a lot still there to develop. And that's been very good for me and my staff to learn how to do that.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I think just my background from being in Chicago. My mom and dad had to go to work every day, and there were no sick leave or anything like that. And you're constantly worried about not having a job, and my good mother, God bless her, passed away two years ago. But even after we've been to Final Fours and that, I'll stop in Chicago, stay with her on a recruiting trip, she was always worried about me getting fired. I mean that's the background she came from. She would say, you lost, you might get fired. I mean that's what you... I don't know. I just feel like you have to come to work every night. And if I stopped doing that, then I -- and you end up making an incredible commitment to what you do now. And then when you win or lose, it means more, which that to me, see, that's what tomorrow night's about. Win or lose, tomorrow night's gonna mean a lot. And that's good. I mean whatever you're doing, if it means a lot, then it drives you to a level of passion and emotion that few people experience. And that's what will happen tomorrow night.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I think you get more mature, I hope. And I think you learn to appreciate things more. It doesn't mean that I was sad in '91 and '92. I was as happy as could be. I mean I got Grant Hill, Bobby Hurley, Christian Laettner, we were playing great basketball. I had a lot of fun with it. I think I understand things better now. And I just -- having gone through a bunch of things. So I'm more capable of doing that now than I was then.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I hope they shake their head for another decade now. I hope we keep getting kids like that. Maggette understands that he's an improving basketball player; he's learning. God love him, he understands, too, that what we do as a team is more important than what he's doing. So he just wants to be a part of a group.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: One of the reasons I love being at Duke, every time I coach a game at Duke, it's an event. I mean, the students and fans make it that way. The level of genuine interest is the best. And our fans, for the most part, are not fans of the winning. They're fans of our team. A lot of people are just fans of the winning. So that's made it great. As far as the post people, I don't know. Yeah, just... It's amazing why there's so many foreign players who now play the post in the NBA and whereas in the States a lot of the big kids feel like in order to show that they're unique, being away from the basket makes them unique. Or being a good post player would make them unique. I don't know, it's just not there. Probably some of it has to do, as I think about it, when young big kids are developing in other parts of the world, they don't play in high school. They play on club teams where they're allowed a more physical grant -- this is probably a good point now that I'm making it. (Laughter) In high schools, a big kid is not allowed to be a big kid because if he does anything, I've been there, in a physical manner, he's going to get called for a foul and whatever. I think that probably has something to do with it. We probably need more developing programs for bigger kids in high school. Like you know how they have guard camps and that? It would probably be a good thing to have stuff like that for bigger kids. I think that club system helps out those kids in foreign countries.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: We've had good talent at Duke but it's certainly as good as it's ever been. It's a different time though, do we have all these kids all the time and things like that, those questions will be answered in the next year or so as we see. But the main thing is for me that happened in recruiting is we adjusted to the new recruiting rules. We hadn't done as good as an adjustment in getting to know kids. See the new recruiting rules limit your amount of contact with kids. It used to be where we got to know them so well that by the time they came into our program they already felt that they were a part of our program. We already had a great relationship with the young man and his family. You can't do that now with a lot of kids. And if you recruit a few of them, there's a chance that you might have it. But then you got to get them, too. Because that's a lot of investment. But that's the way I went at it, and it worked. I don't know if it will continue to work. But the youngsters who we recruited last year, if you ask them right now how comfortable they feel with us, I think they'd say that they feel like they're part of the program right now; that they know us real well. That's a huge advantage when they finally come in. You know, it's not -- they're part of you already. And that wasn't happening in the early '90s when we recruited because of the change and also because of our success. Like, it's going to be April and we're still playing. We went to seven Final Fours and never had a spring recruiting season. We never got to know some of those kids early. So you do things because of how much time you have and then what the rules are, so we were able to adjust in that manner.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: No, he said that.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: No, I think that we have a great, huge following for Duke. But we also have people who really want us passionately to lose. And I think that's good. That means that they're interested in you. To me, that's a compliment. If you go into an arena -- hopefully not this arena tomorrow night -- in our league and everyone's booing you, that's a compliment. They're passionate in their efforts to try to beat you. I thought we had a lot of sentiment for us when we went to three straight Final Fours and didn't win, and then finally we won in the fourth one, four in a row. By the next year when we were going for our second one, it was completely different. You know, but that's just the way it is. You know, I don't take it personally. If my wife felt that way, I would. But I don't feel that way.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah, the hip bone's connected to the... It's actually true. (Laughter) The hip is actually -- came about because of the back. The compensatory stuff. But when you ask questions like am I in pain. The first thing I want to do is get a mirror and say how the hell do I look to you. Do I look that bad?

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Well good. I'm not in any pain. How can you be playing for a National Championship -- I understand what you're saying, but I'm not in any pain. A week from now I'm going to have my hip replaced and I'm going to be great. But I feel good. I just limp. I limp. That's all.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I think we have a great situation at Duke. We have two teams that are very compatible. I think Gail's been there six, seven years, I'm guessing of course. We've never had an argument. And we share the facility, and I think we share support for one another. I know our kids are friends with them, and their kids are friends with our guys. It's been good. I mean how unique is that, that they're playing for the National Championship tonight and we have an opportunity to play for it tomorrow night. What a great thing for Duke. It's a nice time to be President of Duke, fund raiser at Duke, you know. And it's kind of a neat time.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah, long time ago. He was the coach of Northeastern when I was at Army. I can remember losing a tough game to him, Perry Moss had a half-court shot on the buzzer and beat us. And so I've known him for a long time. I think we're very similar in a lot of ways. We have different accents, definitely. But there's no question that -- we've been at different levels. I think we appreciate where we're at. I think we're both a little bit more player's coaches. We give our players freedom. And the kids usually play really hard for us. And as a result, we both have won a lot. So I admire what he's done, and I consider him a good friend.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Have I seen the light? Yeah, about six this morning. You know, I hate to -- I have a good life. You know. Some of those questions -- I've had a hip problem and I've had a great basketball team most of my time at Duke. I'm healthy. I always look at life as -- I've been lucky. I've been really lucky. And I appreciate it. I don't think I'm one to give like a sermon on the mountain right now. I should just be talking about basketball and what I know, not these other things.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: We didn't show it necessarily last night, but we played a hell of a defensive team last night. If we hit freethrows last night, we would have scored 80 points. I think you have to give kids an opportunity to take their shots. And whenever we're on the court, I like all five players who are on the court to understand what their shots are. Like Chris Carrawell is not as good a shooter as Avery and Langdon. But Carrawell made a couple of huge shots for us last night. He hit a three and then his drive, which led to freethrows and a stick back, kids have to know that they're allowed to score for them to be, I think, complete players. And they'll do their other jobs better if they know they have at least an opportunity to take their shot. And that's what I've tried to teach all my teams. And this team, it's a little bit easier because they have good talent, so they have more shots than most teams.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Well, in Chicago, really I liked baseball and football better. But we didn't have CYOs at that time. I was a Catholic, still am. And I used to organize my own team. It was tough to organize a football team. And so I organized a basketball team. I even went to the nun at my school and said I want to enroll -- I want our team, I was in the 7th grade, I want my team to be in the CYO. They said no. So I took my team and we played all the other teams. We travelled around in Chicago. And with no parents or anything like that. That's when I became attracted to it. I went to Weber High School, and I tried out for football and I didn't know that they, like, recruited, you know. And so I was out for the second day of practice and they gave out pads and I didn't get pads. And I knew I was better than a bunch of the kids, but they were recruited. I didn't know that. And being -- I was very stubborn and I had a very bad temper when I was young, and so I quit. I said I'm not gonna take that. And that's when I really started playing basketball. And then I did that all the time; I just did it all the time from then on. And no one could tell me, like, don't quit, you should stick it out. My parents probably didn't even know I was busy trying out for football, they were too busy working. That's how I got started.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: He would be successful guarding me. If I was on this team trying to figure out shots for me, I'd say you know what, you'd be better off if you got somebody else shots. Ricky would hold me down pretty easily. Ricky Moore is steadfast in his desire to guard his opponent. He doesn't let bumps in the road, so to speak, since that's been a popular expression the last 12, 14 hours, get in his way. You know, he will not be deterred. Like if the door opens to the subway, he's getting on it. You know. He's not waiting in line, he feels like he's getting through. He doesn't look at any of those things as obstacles; he only sees himself successful. I'd love to coach him. The way we play defense, I'd love to have him on our team. There's no question about it.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I didn't see him in high school.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: They're too good to have one key be a key to their success. El-Amin, I think, has done a confidence. He's a good talker. You know, when he talks confidently, I think that's very good for his team. Our guys really like him. Elton played with him this summer in the Goodwill Team, and he understands him, too, about the fact that in a huddle or if someone just scores a big basket against Connecticut there's a good chance that El-Amin will come back and attack you right away. And he makes big shots for them. There's no question about it. He's a big-time player.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Are they the underdog? I mean... To me, we're pretty evenly matched. I mean you got two teams that were both ranked No. 1. You know, in our view, they're not any underdogs. We know that they're capable of beating us, and we think we're capable of beating them. So I think it's a pretty even matchup.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I have no control over those things. I never worry about what the other guy's gonna say unless he tells them what I want him to say. Like Ricky Moore, guard Coach K. Like I would love for him to say that.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I don't think easy is a word you use in either context. I think it was just different. The fact of my experience of having done it before, that's a huge help. But to get kind of the energy level that you need to do it after kind of living in the penthouse is different. Whether that's harder, easier or whatever, it's just different. We had such an elite status, and then all of a sudden, it's like going bankrupt. And now you got to build it up again. And it was different, let's put it that way. But it is every bit as fulfilling as when we first did it.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Well, right now we have a chance to stay up here. But that depends. That depends on what kids do. How you recruit. Things are not as stable anywhere anymore, and you have to constantly look at ways of running your program to keep it at this level. You know, basically, we've done it with a very young team. I mean there's no question we got talent, but we're very young. So you took an exceptional group of kids with a great leader in Trajan Langdon, I'm not sure you get that mix all the time.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I'm not going to play Florida A & M again. No disrespect to them. I'm one of those guys, I'd rather not play the best team. But the fact is now that we play it, I think it will be a great matchup. Certainly, you'd rather play the 12 seed, you know. I mean there's no question about that. But it just worked out, it's great for college basketball. We knew that Connecticut was one of the teams that could win. And we felt we were one of them. So they're two that felt that really all year long they were the guys, you know. And I think that's what will make it a great game tomorrow night.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: This is better. It's better for fans. You have to have another dome, I think. It just gives more opportunities for, you know, people to see it. It makes it -- it's a huge event. It deserves a dome. I mean there's no question about that.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I'm always appreciative of the venue that I am able to coach in, always. But also always have empathy for the people who are coaching in those other venues, and some of the best jobs are done by people in those other venues, not necessarily by the people in the ones that are most watched. So I think my association with the NABC has helped me keep that in pretty good perspective.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Well, I missed it terribly. I didn't know if we'd ever get back because I know how hard it is to get here. This is one of the really neat afternoons when you're able to make it this far. Because when you look to your left here, to your right of course, when I look to my left and I see those kids, it's just good. You know, it's the best. And that feeling, those are the feelings that, believe me, we're going to -- I want to win so badly tomorrow night. But if that's the only feeling that I have from this Final Four, then that's wrong. I think the feelings of looking to your left here and seeing your five starters or that type of thing, seeing Langdon walk off the court against Temple when we know we had the game won and knowing that we are going into the Final Four, those are moments that are just as big as the National Championship moment. I think I understand those things pretty well. I mean I'm able to see them very well.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: You have to change according to the knowledge level, the maturity level and talent level of the team you're approaching. This team has been great to approach because it absorbs so much. It believes, and it wants to -- it wants to make you happy. They want to do what we want them to do. Maggette can be one of the truly special players at this level and at the next level if he continues to learn the way he's learning. Anyone who has followed us the whole year knows that his learning curve has gone up. His talent level is there, I mean how to use all your talents, it amazes me that kids don't -- I guess it's because of who they're with that they don't understand that. The development, when you have it, you have to develop it. You don't just use it. And it's like having a special resource, you know. There's only so much of it. Like use it wisely, develop it. Don't just burn it up. You know a lot of kids burn it up.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Villa (phonetic spelling) was always a talker, recruiting him. Developed into a great talker. Coaching at Army really helped me to coach at Duke, especially in recruiting. Because I already was recruiting nationally, and the people at Duke kept telling me, you know, it's different here. You're going to be restricted. And I had a different view. I said are you kidding me, I don't have to sell a kid five years in the military, driving a tank. I might get Magic Johnson, you know. So I looked at it as broadening my horizons. I think one of the best pieces of information was something Coach Knight had mentioned to me, because all players were going to look better than the ones we had at Army. He said just remember you're not playing Army's schedule; that you have to look at the league and end up recruiting players that can play in your level of competition. And that still was a little bit of a learning curve for me for a couple of years; that was a great bit of advice. There's no question about that.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I don't think the two are conflicting. I think that arguably the best pro players over the last two decades have been the most fundamentally sound. Michael Jordan is amazingly fundamentally sound; Larry Bird, fundamentally sound. The development of fundamentals when you have great talent only makes sense. You just know how to use your stuff better. That's what's happening with Corey. I mean now he doesn't charge as much, he gets someplace with the ball. He's fearless. But now he's learning how to use his resource, that will only serve him well, no matter how long he plays.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Well, I mean you can take any of the UCLA teams that Coach Wooden had. Certainly Coach Knight's team that was undefeated. I don't know. Just for our own teams, the '92 team was as good as just about anybody, if they didn't get hurt for a month they might have gone undefeated, too. Who knows about that, we might have lost the first round, too. But it was a pretty good team. I think there has to be an incredible level of talent, and then while having that talent, still the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. That's the only -- that's an old expression, but those great teams still played better as one than they did individually.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: It was probably illegal but we sent him a tape of the song, "I saw the light, I saw light." Then from then on he was perfect. Shane was an easy recruit. For a long time, I think he wanted to come to Duke. He could see, based on what he had done in school and in basketball, that Duke was a perfect fit in developing all of his talents. And as you grow up, hopefully your perspective widens and you're able to see some of those things. I think that's what happened.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: I'm under pressure on the last answer.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: We do, too.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Yeah. It's accurate for beating anybody. Just that they do it better than most people. They have a lot of -- they score so well in the transition that you just -- they can put up a lot of points quickly. And so if you did -- if you were fortunate to get a 4, 6-point lead and just relax a second, all of a sudden they might have the lead. And that's what we have -- hopefully we're up 4 to 6 at certain times so we can be placed in that position.

COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI: Thank you.