Duke’s baton now fully switched from the coach to

San Antonio – After more than three decades, Mike Krzyzewski loaded four over the finals.

He brought his Duke program 13 times, won five national titles and became fully intertwined not only by the program but also by the university.

Duke. K. was one and the same.

Then, in 2022, after 42 seasons he retired and – at least when it comes to Blue Devils basketball – everyone disappeared.

Despite the fact that the program has been operated in the last three seasons of Jon Scheyer, the star in Duke’s 2010 National Championship Team, who later spent nine years as an assistant coach K, and Krzyzewski, who maintained not only the residence locally but an office on academic ground.

Everything was part of the Krzyzewski plan to enter the shadows and allow its old program to become Scheyer’s program by avoiding the hovering presence of legend.

Many also believe why Duke is not just back in Final Four, but a favorite betting to join Monday with NETS under 38 -year -old Scheyer.

“The coach gave me an amazing room to be myself,” Scheyer said on Thursday. “I think he understands when there is only gravity and people who look at him and so it all. It was like a beautiful thing, very organic and natural with the coach K and I. The fact (is) that we are still strong as it could be.”

It couldn’t be easy for Krzyzewski.

Over the years, he was perfectly under the control of all aspects of his program, calculated and confiscated every last advantage. His life was basketball, especially the Duke of Basketball. Scheyer said he regularly calls Krzyzewski about advice. K also sometimes talks to players when they hit them around a basketball device and addressed a team every season.

Everything else is, however, a hands-off, a fact that requires a grado discipline to West Point, which is carried out by a thoughtful plan that he believed would be most beneficial to Scheyer, and therefore most benefit the Duke of Basketball.

“There aren’t many coaches really don’t want the program to succeed as soon as they’re done,” Scheyer said. “I think his heritage will be a part of his heritage forever that he has prepared our program for such success, and we are able to be in the last four of the year 3.

The call for a successful coach has been suffering from programs and franchises for years. Maintaining size is always difficult. Finding consecutive elite coaches is also. It can be particularly demanding when compensation is a young coach in his first job, learning at the center of expectations. For example, Krzyzewski won 10 and 11 games in their second and third seasons. Few paid attention.

Scheyer is 89-21 (0.809) as a head coach, which is proven both on the sidelines and on the recruitment trail-S Freshman Sensation Cooper Flaggespecially. Scheyer took the remnants of Krzyzewski to Final Four; That’s all his job. Only one player, senior center Stanley BordenIt transmits from the final team Krzyzewski in 2021-22.

“I think most people want to be a guy watching a guy who follows the guy, isn’t it?” Borden said on Thursday. “The first person who followed the guy will take all the guilt when things are not going well.”

Krzyzewski said in his radio show Sirius XM that he and his wife Mickie would participate in Saturday’s semifinals against Houston. During the first two seasons of Scheyer did not participate in the game, but this season returned, including sitting next to the actor and Duke Ken Jeong in the game in Las Vegas. However, he has not yet been on the NCAA tournament game.

“I’m planning to be there to watch them,” Krzyzewski said on the show. “I try to avoid it publicly, just to find our program a chance to continue moving in my direction. But I want to be there for Scheyer. … Look, I want the Duke to win. So I want to be there to support.”

The fact that the news broke as part of its own Krzyzewski radio program is a sign that it has barely slowed down. In national advertising campaigns, it is still very visible and speaking.

Yet, when it comes to the Duke’s basketball, there is no doubt about who is in charge.

Borden said there were similarities among men – Scheyer, after all, still calling Krzyzewski, his “coach” – but that the program was fully crossed.

“Both are deadly competitive,” Borden said. “I think they have only very different styles. Personalities are very different. … I see through line from one to another. Coach Scheyer just spins and says it and does it in his own way.

“What I can say from the knowledge of coach Scheyer, as if he was an associated head coach, then the head coach, is that he is a basketball savant. The game just sees differently.”

This is what has excelled across university basketball. Perhaps it is a lack of Krzyzewski sitting behind the bench, or it is just that the Duke (35-3) plays such a brilliant brand of basketball that this team stands mainly.

“I’ll tell you how good Jon Scheyer was: No one talks about him to replace the coach K,” said coach Houston Kelvin Sampson. “I think it speaks for him.”

Scheyer said he appreciated that Krzyzewski began to feel comfortable to come for a few games and hopes to participate on Saturday.

“I want him to be proud to watch us,” Scheyer said.

Perhaps Krzyzewski was no longer afraid of shading his protector serves as the final sign that the mission was met and the baton in Durham was fully approved.