Northwestern coach Chris Collins reflects on Coach K's legacy, time together at Duke

Before he became the head coach at Northwestern, Chris Collins spent many years alongside Mike Krzyzewski at Duke. He played for Coach K from 1992-96 before joining the staff as an assistant from 2000-2013, meaning he got to know the legendary coach well.

But this year’s going to be different. Krzyzewski retired after the 2021-22 season, meaning this will be the first college basketball season without him since 1973 — the year before he started as an assistant at Indiana. For Collins, it’s going to be an adjustment not seeing his former coach on the court.

However, he sees a chance for other coaches to step up and help grow the game as Coach K did.

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“Coach K, to me, was the epitome of college basketball,” Collins said. “I was very fortunate in my life to play for him. But then to work under him for 13 years, 17 years of my life I got to be around him every day and witness his greatness. I think the thing more than anything is how much he loved the college game. He wanted to win, he wanted to compete, but he always wanted the game to grow. He wanted the product to be better. Leaders and mentors like that, when you see them now leave the game, it’s sad.

“It’s surreal for me as the season is beginning not to turn on a game and not see him out there because I know his passion for it, how much he loved what he did. We’re going to miss him. It’s the responsibility of us now as coaches to kind of carry that mantle of the guys before us that were such unbelievable representation of the college game, the way they did it, how they led young men. I think we hold that responsibility to keep it going.”

Duke made a run to the Final Four last season before falling to North Carolina in New Orleans. Now, Krzyzewski is out and Jon Scheyer is in as head coach to start a new era — and he hit the ground running. The Blue Devils have the nation’s No. 1-ranked recruiting class coming in, according to the On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Ranking, and also have Ryan Young coming in via the transfer portal. Young played for Collins at Northwestern the last three seasons before deciding to leave for Duke.