How will Coach K’s retirement affect Duke? We’ll begin to find out on Tuesday.
READ MORE
Champions Classic preview: No. 10 Kentucky vs. No. 9 Duke
The Kentucky men’s basketball team opens its 2021-22 season Tuesday in New York City against longtime rival Duke in the State Farm Champions Classic. Click below to view all the stories previewing the game that have been published on Kentucky.com.
Expand All
One question sure to hang over college basketball in 2021-22 is how will Duke players and Duke’s opponents react to this being Mike Krzyzewski’s final season.
Will Duke players be inspired to punctuate Coach K’s Hall of Fame career with a championship? Or will the pressure to do so burden Duke players? Will opponents — beginning with Kentucky on Tuesday — be inspired to beat Coach K? Or will opponents and/or Duke players be distracted by the extended farewell of a coaching icon?
Duke captains Joey Baker and Wendell Moore Jr., used the word “opportunity” to describe the effect of Krzyzewski’s impending retirement.
“We’re going to play on the biggest stage there is,” Moore said, “and really that’s the reason you come to Duke. Because you want to play on those big stages every night. You want to play in front of the flashing lights (and) the cameras are on you.
“There’s really no other feeling like it.”
Moore, a junior, said his first two seasons had been amazing in terms of being in the spotlight.
“This third year is going to be even more amazing with the kind of buzz and media attention we’ve had so far,” he said.
Duke’s other captain, Joey Baker, added a reminder.
“At the end of day . . . it’s basketball,” he said. “It’s what we’ve done our whole lives. So, we can’t get away from that.
“But there is definitely an added layer of excitement for us.”
ESPN analyst (and former Duke player) Jay Bilas said Krzyzewski would downplay any effect.
“I can tell you from knowing Coach K so long, he’s not looking at this as his last year,” Bilas said during a teleconference. “He’s looking at this as this team’s only year.”
Another former Duke player, JJ Redick, suggested on another teleconference that Duke players should be inspired.
“Hopefully our Duke team has a sense of urgency this year to make this year super special for Coach,” Redick said. “I’m looking at this year as sort of a celebration of everything that he has accomplished, everything he’s done for the game of basketball: college basketball, the Olympics. He’s one of the greatest coaches in any sport ever, and I’m hoping along with maybe a national championship in April, we can celebrate everything that he’s done for the game.”
Bilas also spoke of celebration. He added, “I’m glad it didn’t happen last year when there was nobody in person to acknowledge it.”
How did he do that?
Of all Mike Krzyzewski’s accomplishments, JJ Redick recalled one from a practice that could not be duplicated.
“He got angry one day in practice, and he threw a Dasani water bottle across the gym floor, and it went underneath the bleachers, which seemed odd at the time because the bleachers are pretty tight to the floor,” Redick said of Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium. “So, after practice that day, a few of us went out with a full Dasani water bottle and we tried for 15 minutes to fit a Dasani water bottle underneath the bleachers. It was impossible. I don’t know how he did that.”
‘Braveheart’
JJ Redick also recalled an example of Mike Krzyzewski’s skill as a motivator.
“We’re getting ready to play Georgia Tech coming off an emotional Wednesday game,” Redick said. “We came in on Friday night, and we watched ‘Braveheart.’ … It’s a very visceral film, lots of blood, lots of gore, lots of violence.
“The next day, we came in for the pregame meeting. He plays the same (battle) scene again. … As the scene culminates, he runs in with this army saber and screaming like William Wallace (he) sticks it in the flower pot. If you don’t want to go play after that, you don’t have a soul.”
Added Redick: “He’s always looking for something to motivate. But his greatness is as much X’s and O’s and understanding people as it is motivation.”
Doctor appointment
Anton Brown, who played for John Calipari-coached UMass teams in the late 1980s and early 1990s, attended UK’s exhibition game Friday. Earlier in the week, he told an entertaining story about his recruitment.
Brown, a 6-foot-2 guard, grew up in Columbia, S.C. As a high school player, he had met Calipari at the famed Five-Star camps. Calipari was an assistant at Pitt at the time.
Brown had narrowed his college choices to Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, South Carolina and Arizona. He had also decided to take his final recruiting visit to Hawaii.
“I wasn’t going to go to school there,” he said. “I just wanted to take the free trip.
“And Coach Cal called me. He was, like, ‘Hey, I just got the job at UMass.’”
To which, Brown recalled asking, where?!
Calipari made it clear: the University of Massachusetts.
“I never heard of them,” Brown recalled saying.
Calipari then suggested Brown make a recruiting visit to UMass. Brown declined.
Calipari did not give up. “Let me get someone to give you a call and see if I can change your mind.”
A short time later, Brown got a call from Julius Erving, who played for UMass before becoming an iconic NBA player. Erving offered to accompany Brown on the campus visit.
“That blew my mind,” Brown said. “I got off the phone and I told my dad, that was Dr. J on the phone.”
Brown’s father did not believe it.
After visiting UMass, Brown committed.
He scored 883 points as a college player and was part of the UMass rise out of basketball obscurity.
Even with Dr. J’s involvement, Brown had second thoughts. He recalled that during his first home game as a freshman, the ball went into the stands.
“There weren’t enough people in the stands to throw the ball back,” he said. “I had to go in the stands and get the ball and give it to the referee.
“I thought, man, did I make the right decision?”
Congratulations
To Asbury University graduate Steve Smith.
On Oct. 29, Smith won his 1,200th game as Oak Hill Academy coach.
“That tells you how old I am,” he quipped.
Smith is 66.
Going into a home game Saturday, his career record was 1,201-91. That’s a winning percentage of 92.9.
“That’s what good players will do for you,” he said.
Smith became Oak Hill Academy coach in 1985. He said he had opportunities to leave.
When Tubby Smith left the Virginia Commonwealth staff to be an assistant at South Carolina in 1986, he called Steve Smith about the opening.
(Steve) Smith considered the move, then decided to stay at Oak Hill. Later, he had opportunities to join the staff at Pittsburgh and then Louisville.
“I’m glad I stayed here as long as I have,” he said. “I’m kind of a homebody.”
Career highlights include Oak Hill winning the 2016 Geico National Tournament in Madison Square Garden. Another is winning two of three games against a high school team led by LeBron James.
Oak Hill figures to continue winning. Chris Livingston, a 6-foot-7 senior, has committed to Kentucky. Junior point guard Caleb Foster has already committed to Duke.
How much longer will Smith coach?
“I don’t think I’ll hit 1,300 (victories),” he said. “Let’s put it that way.”
Best wishes
To P.G. Peeples, the president and CEO of the Lexington Urban League.
Peeples, who turned 76 on Oct. 29, is recovering from brain surgery. He underwent a five-hour surgery at the Cleveland Clinic to remove a brain tumor.
Condolences
To the family of Albert Cummins. He died last Sunday at age 95.
Cummins was a native of Brooksville, Ky. The 1944 Brooksville High School team had a regular-season record of 22-0. Adolph Rupp was impressed enough to offer each player a UK scholarship.
With World War II raging, Cummins was drafted before the end of his freshman year of 1944-45. He served in the U.S. Navy. Upon returning in 1946, Cummins practiced daily against three-time All-American Ralph Beard.
“Ralph and I would push each other,” Cummins said for a story two years ago. “Sometimes I’d get mine. And sometimes he’d get his.
“When I played against anybody else, it was always easier.”
Late in the 1947-48 season, Cummins transferred to Michigan State, where he played baseball.
Happy birthday
To Tyrese Maxey. He turned 21 on Thursday. … To Dontaie Allen. He turned 21 on Friday. … To Trey Lyles. He turned 26 on Friday. … To Vanderbilt Coach Jerry Stackhouse. He turned 47 on Friday. … To Doron Lamb. He turned 30 on Saturday. … To Jonny David. He turns 25 on Sunday (today). … To former UK coach Billy Gillispie. He turns 62 on Sunday (today). … To Dwight Perry. He turns 34 on Tuesday. … To Scotty Pippen Jr. He turns 21 on Wednesday.
Tuesday
No. 10 Kentucky vs. No. 9 Duke
What: Champions Classic
Where: Madison Square Garden in New York City
When: 9:30 p.m.
TV: ESPN
Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1
Records: Season opener for both teams
Series: Kentucky leads 12-10.
Last meeting: Duke won 118-84 on Nov. 6, 2018, at the Champions Classic at Indianapolis.
This story was originally published November 7, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
