WATCH: Jon Scheyer gifts Coach K adorable puppy as retirement present
Mike Krzyzewski doesn’t have any players to coach now that he’s going into retirement. But that didn’t stop incoming Duke coach Jon Scheyer from giving Coach K something else to, in a way, coach.
“We can’t repay you for what you’ve done for all of us, but we’re going to try,” Scheyer said. “Since you’ve got a lot more time now, Coach, we felt like you needed something to train.”
That’s when a player brought out “Coach,” a silver lab the Blue Devils gave Krzyzewski as a retirement gift.
It was a heartwarming moment to cap Duke’s year-end awards banquet, and it might be even more special for Krzyzewski.
Coach K’s dog, Blue, passed away in August 2021, and previously said he wanted to get another dog after he retires. He didn’t want to train one during the season, which is why he was going to wait. Well, his team took note of that remark, and made sure to help him get a head start.
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Krzyzewski’s legendary career came to an end at the Final Four in a loss to Duke’s biggest rival, North Carolina. It was the final chapter of a legendary 48-year career in coaching, including 42 years at Duke. He retires with a 1,202-368 overall record and a 101-30 mark in the NCAA Tournament — making him the winningest coach in March Madness history.
Now, he’s passing the torch to Scheyer, who played at Duke from 2006-10 and has been on Krzyzewski’s staff since 2014. Scheyer will be the fifth-youngest coach in Division I basketball next season, and he has quite a task replacing Coach K.
The future looks bright, too, since he’s already been on the recruiting trail. Duke has the No. 1 recruiting class in the country this year, according to the On3 Consensus Team Rankings, and has three five-star recruits coming in. In fact, the Blue Devils are bringing in the top three players in the nation, led by Kyle Filipowski, the nation’s No. 1 player, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.