Players, colleagues praise Mike Krzyzewski's ability to connect, adapt, win

More than two decades later, the details remain crystallized in Christian Laettner's mind: Mike Krzyzewski kicking his Duke team off the court at practice, telling players, "Get in the locker room!" Once inside, the coach slammed the door, Laettner said, and ordered everyone else — assistants, managers — out.

Krzyzewski locked the door. He addressed every player individually and, as Laettner put it, "got down our throats and cracked each guy over the head" verbally, providing specific areas for improvement. With a veteran group, the strong-armed tactic worked, almost always resulting in an immediate surge in the games that followed.

These are Laettner's favorite memories of his decorated four-year Duke career because of how Krzyzewski repeatedly found the precise way to strike the right chord to motivate a seasoned team of college luminaries.

"I have a feeling he still does it, but he might deliver his lecture a little differently," Laettner told USA TODAY Sports. "I'm sure he does it in a way now that is acceptable in today's basketball world."

For as much acclaim as Krzyzewski receives for winning four national titles and more than 1,000 games, his former players say his greatest attribute is remaining philosophically malleable over the years — adapting to eras and personnel — while still adhering to core hallmarks.

His 12 Final Four appearances, which tie John Wooden for the most all time, have spanned vastly different college basketball eras, beginning with his first in 1986 when many of the best players still stayed for four years and including this season, in the heart of the sport's one-and-done era.

"The consistency," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said, "is what I marvel over."

Perhaps no season illustrates his ability to adapt more than this one, where he has stewarded a team comprised essentially of eight players — four of them freshmen — into Saturday's national semifinal against Michigan State. It's the youngest team he has ever had, one that he says has authored one of the most unique seasons he's experienced in 35 years at Duke. His former players say he has been more patient and mellower because that was the ideal approach for this distinct group.

In a deft motivational stroke, players said, Krzyzewski told the team before the Jan. 31 win at then-unbeaten Virginia, "Eight is enough." Senior Quinn Cook said they believed him because "he's the greatest. Anything he says, we trust."

When asked to put the season in context, Krzyzewski said, "These guys — there are eight guys. There is not somebody hiding in the locker room that is going to come out and appear … This is such — it's been such an incredible year. I've enjoyed it immensely."

Nate James, the Duke assistant who played for the Blue Devils from 1997 to 2001, said what impresses him most is Krzyzewski's ability to adapt to what he has personnel-wise and consistently push the right buttons with different types of teams to motivate them.

"There's not just one way," James said. "Some coaches are stuck in their ways, like 'I want to do it this way, the way I've always done it.' No. If you do it that way, it may hurt this group. He adjusts."

As former Duke great Grant Hill said, "The class of 1985 is different than the class of 2015. Different in a number of ways: Defense, offense, in the way he relates to players."

Unlike the mid-1980s, many elite prospects Duke now signs — freshmen Jahlil Okafor and Tyus Jones chief among them — are household names in the basketball world long before they sign with the Blue Devils. Their every move and utterance in high school are dissected on social media. Analysts and laymen critique their skill sets as they travel the nation during the summers for hundreds of high-profile AAU games.

"It's a different generation," Hill added. "They have different experiences. Different things are necessary to motivate them and get them to play … His ability to connect and send the right message to players — the modern young college athlete — I think is why he has continued to be successful."

In the moments after Duke beat Gonzaga in the South Region final on Sunday, Krzyzewski's wife, Mickie, said each Final Four appearance has felt new, because "it's a new team every time. For heaven's sake, this is." Asked what makes this team special, she quickly said, "The fact that we have eight players and four freshmen makes this special. That is very special."

The Gonzaga staff had roughly 48 hours to devote to preparing exclusively for Duke's personnel. When Bulldogs assistant coach Tommy Lloyd was asked if there was something he specifically saw on tape that struck him as a hallmark of a typical Duke team, Lloyd said, "Yeah. Lottery picks. They literally have three guys (Okafor, Jones, Justise Winslow) who are lottery picks. Maybe all three of them could be this year — 18, 19 years old. Incredible talent.

"Coach K is one of the greatest of all time. He has a simple plan where they know what he wants and they execute it. It isn't real complicated, but it is very effective with really good players."

But Duke assistants say the distinguishable feature of this team isn't the talent or even the youth as much as it is the players' unrelenting willingness to be coached each day. With players currently on the roster, they say there is no worrying about agendas or commitment issues.

"He has always coached his teams differently," said assistant Jon Scheyer, who won a national title on the 2010 Duke team. "But with this group, it has not been about picking it up. Our guys have been themselves. We're not worrying about anything else except winning games."

Okafor, Jones and Winslow were all accomplished high school players with strong character. Once at Duke, they were fortunate to be able to follow the lead of senior Cook, whom Krzyzewski pushed to dramatically improve his maturity and approach to basketball in the offseason with an eye on providing an example for the talented freshman class.

"It has been easy to lead," Cook said, "because they make it easy … It was easy to mesh. They (freshmen) came in so close, and they came in very humble. We all had relationships with them before they got to campus in July."

When Scheyer played, he recalled Krzyzewski chewing him out when he exited a game a little more than might be the case today. With this group, Scheyer said, there's no need for that because "they are so competitive as it is. It's about making the next play."

As an older player who once experienced a bit more of Krzyzewski's fire and brimstone, James said he sometimes shakes his head and says, "'Look, you don't even know the half of what Coach would say or do if we tried to do some of the things you guys have done.' He was way tougher with us. We were older, we could handle it."

With a younger team, James said, the key is to keep them playing instinctually, without over-thinking. Keep players loose and infused with confidence. Keep things lighter. The freshmen all said they haven't felt like freshmen all season.

"His approach this year was a lot different than in past years," James added, "because he kind of understood the makeup of the team and what needed to be done."

From talking to former Duke players such as Hill and Nolan Smith, who played on the 2010 title team, Jones has heard that his coach has "mellowed out a bit." With no comparison, Jones still sees a fiery side and loves it.

Jones said the issue coaches had with him in the fall was that he wasn't vocal enough on the court. During a few early games, he said, Krzyzewski got on him for not talking enough. Jones felt he let Krzyzewski and teammates down.

"If you make a mistake that pisses him off, he will let you know that," Jones said. "That's one of the reasons you come play for him because of how honest he is … There are a lot of coaches who will let certain players get away with certain things. He has not been that way with anybody on our team."

There were on-court adjustments as well through the course of the season, be it going more to zone earlier in the year or even attempting only nine three-point shots against Utah. Lloyd, the Gonzaga assistant, suggested the latter was a shrewd reaction to some of the struggles teams had initially shooting inside cavernous NRG Stadium.

Even at 68 and considered the finest modern era college basketball coach, if not the best in history, Krzyzewski talks about growing as a coach and about how his experience in recent years with USA Basketball has helped him immensely.

"A teacher should learn with every new year that he or she has an opportunity to teach, because the students can bring out new things for you," he said. "I think when you stop learning, you should retire in whatever you do. Learning is what keeps you fresh."

The decades, the names, the faces and some of the rules change. Perhaps some of those locker-room scolding sessions that Laettner fondly recalls change slightly as well.

The one constant? Another Final Four berth.

"Everybody softens with age," Laettner said. "Yes, he has softened a little bit. You have to change with the way the kids, the generations and the players change … He has evolved as the game has. It shows he is willing to learn, willing to change. He is not stuck in one mold."