Coach K: At least 5 more years

By
ESPN.com news services
via
March 27, 2014, 10:49 AM ET
3 min read

— -- Mike Krzyzewski will remain synonymous with Duke for the foreseeable future, as the coach said Wednesday that he plans to coach the Blue Devils for at least five more seasons.

"I'm looking forward to the next five years," Krzyzewski said during his end-of-season address to reporters. "What do we do in the next five, not just what do we do next season. What are the decisions? The first thing is, I look at me. I'm going to be here.

"This past year I had a few setbacks, and I had an episode with health at the Wake game. I wanted to clear the air that I'm good. I'm going forward."

The 67-year-old Krzyzewski, who leads all Division I men's coaches with 983 wins, was hospitalized after feeling light-headed during a loss at Wake Forest on March 4.

Among the items on his agenda going forward is developing on-court leadership, especially after the third-seeded Blue Devils' 78-71 loss to 14-seed Mercer in the NCAA tournament's round of 64.

"I try not to look at how we run our program in one-year periods or based on one game, whether that means you've won the national championship or you got eliminated like we did this year," Krzyzewski said. "I really don't think that's the way to run a program."

Krzyzewski called this season's team, which finished 26-9, streaky and said he does not know whether freshman Jabari Parker or sophomore  Rodney Hood will return to the Blue Devils or enter the NBA draft.

"Yes, we could play defense better, but fundamentally the thing that we missed was on-court leadership play after play," Krzyzewski said.

Coach K also voiced his unhappiness Wednesday with ACC officials after no conference officials backed him up when he said that more conference teams should have made the NCAA tournament when bids were announced this month.

"I won't be doing that anymore," Krzyzewski said. "I am not going to do that again because I get all the stuff and nobody has my back. It's funny to you. But you're not the ones [hearing], 'He's an idiot. I hate him. He's low-level.'

"The only thing I said is I love my conference and I think this is better. And that's not happening again unless other people are doing it."

In addition to his everyday job, Krzyzewski has committed to coach the U.S. team in the World Cup this summer in Spain and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.