Mike Krzyzewksi is as synonymous with the Duke brand as the Blue Devil himself.
Krzyzewksi, Duke University’s men’s basketball team’s head coach for the past 41 years, will soon leave his post. He’s planning to retire at the end of the 2021-22 basketball season, as was first reported by The Stadium’s Jeff Goodman who broke the news on Twitter today.
Krzyzewksi, 74, will step down as the winningest coach in college basketball history, having led the Blue Devils to five NCAA Division I titles ( 1991, 1992, 2001, 2010 and 2015), 12 Final Fours, 15 ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament championships, and 12 ACC regular season titles.
Goodman speculates that Jon Scheyer will be Coach K’s Successor. Scheyer was a starting guard on Duke’s 2010 national championship team, an assistant coach on the basketball team’s staff for four years, and has been the team’s associate head coach for the past three.
Others reportedly in the running for the position include Tommy Amaker, the head coach of Harvard University’s men’s basketball team, and Johnny Dawkins, the head coach of the men’s team at the University of Central Florida.
Of course, UNC’s head coach Roy Williams also announced his retirement just two months ago.
It seems that college basketball is entering the end of one era and the start of a new one.
Here are some initial reactions to the news that the polarizing, but undeniably talented, head coach will retire:
“To all of us, [Coach K] is Duke. … I can’t imagine my life without him.”
—@JayBilas after the news of Coach K’s plans to retire following next season. pic.twitter.com/sMYZ1tmA8o
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 2, 2021
— Tre Jones (@Tre3Jones) June 2, 2021
There hasn’t been a single second of my life where Coach K wasn’t the head coach at Duke.
Crazy stuff.
— Duke Update (@UpdateDuke) June 2, 2021
BREAKING for @FO_Sports: Initial comments from former UNC basketball coach Roy Williams on Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski retiring after the 2021-22 season pic.twitter.com/4icSMhAczn
— Chapel Fowler (@chapelfowler) June 2, 2021
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