The Hall of Famer and winningest coach in the history of Division I men’s basketball announced Wednesday that next season will be his last with the Blue Devils program he has built into one of college basketball’s bluebloods. The faculty also called former Duke player and associate head coach Jon Scheyer as Krzyzewski’s successor for the 2022-23 season.
“My loved ones and I view today for a party,” Krzyzewski said in a statement published Wednesday evening.
Stadium first reported news of this 74-year-old Krzyzewski’s final season with Duke, which he’s led to five national championships, most recently in 2015. He’s 1,170 career wins going back to his time in Army, with 1,097 wins coming through 41 years with the Blue Devils and their frantic fans who have made playing famously hostile Cameron Indoor Stadium so hard.
Now Krzyzewski will have make a final lap –“The Last Ride,” since the program billed it at a social-media post — round the Atlantic Coast Conference and the sport where he’s piled up an unbelievable streak of success before handing off to Scheyer, now 33.
“He’s obviously ready for this chance and has demonstrated it repeatedly throughout his playing career and as a coach on our staff the past eight seasons,” Krzyzewski said. “Jon is a rising star in our livelihood and Duke basketball couldn’t be in better hands in the future.”
The faculty has scheduled a news conference for Krzyzewski on Thursday at Cameron, followed by one Friday to get Scheyer.
Krzyzewski has led the Blue Devils to 12 Final Four appearances and a record 15 ACC Tournament championships, although his teams have spent a record 126 weeks ranked at No. 1 in the AP men’s college basketball poll.
Hired at Duke at March 1980,”Coach K” won national championships in 1991, 1992, 2001, 2010 and 2015. He broke Army coach Bob Knight’s career success record in November 2011.
Krzyzewski has tailored his approach to adapt with the times and his personnel. He even won that 2010 title with a senior-laden roster, subsequently maintained the 2015 one after pivoting to more”one-and-done” talent that led into the NBA following a lone college year.
His picture became synonymous equally with the elite private college in Durham, North Carolina, and the game as a whole. And along the way, he took over the U.S. men’s national team — using NBA All-Star rosters containing names such as the late Kobe Bryant and LeBron James — also directed it into Olympic gold in Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 and Rio de Janiero at 2016.
“What he means to the countless players he has coached, both collegiately and professionally, is only immeasurable,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said in a statement.
Duke missed the NCAA Tournament last year for the first time since 1995, but the Blue Devils welcome one of the country’s top recruiting classes for the coming season.
Scheyer played Krzyzewski from 2006-10, with his last season resulting in his mentor’s fourth NCAA title. Scheyer combined the Duke staff for the 2013-14 year and rose to his existing role following the 2017-18 year old.
Scheyer has never been a college head coach.
“Duke University has been a fundamental element of my life for at least a decade, and I couldn’t ask for a better location to continue my career,” Scheyer said in a statement. “This is absolutely humbling. … (Krzyzewski) has set a standard which every coach at every level should endeavor to achieve.”
The information comes nearly two weeks to the day which another Hall of Famer in the state — North Carolina’s Roy Williams — announced his retirement after 33 seasons as a head coach with Kansas and the rival Tar Heels. UNC also turned to a former participant on the seat, bettering Hubert Davis to take over in his very first time as a major college head coach.
