Mike Krzyzewski is not happy with the Duke basketball team right now. How do we know? Because he took away their nice things.
He kicked the team out of their locker room and barred them from wearing Blue Devils gear, according to an ESPN report. And since he’s not coaching the team right now while recovering from back surgery, he invited them to his home Tuesday to tell them that.
Videos by VICE
If Coach K wanted that to stay private, it didn’t. Jeff Capel, his assistant and the temporary head coach, isn’t too happy about that. Speaking to WRAL-FM, Capel said, “Really can’t speak on it. Disappointing when stuff that’s supposed to stay in the locker room gets out.”
Apparently Duke’s loss to North Carolina State is what put Coach K over the edge. Duke is 15-5 right now and ranked No. 17 but they’ve lost three of their last four games. Their star-laden team of talented freshmen and Grayson Allen has been hurt by injuries, and also Allen tripping people and being suspended for it.
Who knows when Krzyzewski will give back his players their things—swag being the only thing these players can get outside of their scholarship that the NCAA won’t drop their draconian hammer on. An anonymous source told ESPN that it won’t be until they “start living up to the standards of the Duke program.” What does that mean? Winning, I’d guess. Although treating college athletes like children and taking away their stuff seems like a rather ham-handed way of doing things. Seems reactionary. It’s not the first time Krzyzewski has done this, ESPN says, and other coaches have done it, too.
Funny enough, someone in or around that Duke program thinks it won’t help matters either: “He needs to do more than just take away their jerseys. There are bigger issues that need to be addressed.” The players, ostensibly, tried to do that by holding their own meeting after the sit-down with Coach K.
We’ll see if this actually helps Duke. They’ve got two freshmen in DraftExpress‘s top-18 prospects and Allen. There’s talent. But coaching college kids can be a fickle job.
