Coach K tells KU’s Bill Self he’s ‘most important coach for our sport’
Mike Krzyzewski, the winningest men’s basketball coach in NCAA history, showered praise on fellow Hall of Famer Bill Self during the Duke legend’s most recent edition of “Basketball and Beyond with Coach K,” which appears weekly on the SiriusXM radio network.
“You are doing an amazing job there (at KU), really as good as anybody that’s coached the game,” Krzyzewski, who retired from coaching after the 2021-22 season, told 20th-year Kansas hoops coach Self, a featured guest on the program.
“You’ve dominated the league (Big 12) in a way no one has dominated a league ever. You are right now I think the most important basketball coach for our sport that’s active. You are not only active, but you are as good as anybody,” Coach K added. He then asked Self to reveal his thoughts on the future of college basketball, taking into consideration the NCAA transfer portal and NIL dollars now available to current players.
“I don’t quite feel as strongly as some of my other counterparts that everything is awful,” Self told Krzyzewski on the SiriusXM show. “I don’t think it’s great by any stretch. I know Tom (Izzo, Michigan State coach) is big on this and I don’t want to speak for Tom (who says), ‘The portal (stinks),’’’ Self added.
“And I agree totally with him. But I don’t know that we’re ever going to put the genie back in the bottle, so this is the world which we have to live with, and I’m hopeful over time there will be enough experiences that change how kids look at the portal compared to how they look at it now.”
College players can now transfer from one school to another, even a school in the same conference, and remain immediately eligible at the transfer destination.
“I also think this: I think the portal … eliminates the dips,” Self said. “If we lose five starters, we’re going to go from here to here (major drop). I think now we go from here to here (a smaller drop) because you can go (get players in portal) and fill in (vacancies) immediately. I think in our world, we’ll have more parity and more good teams because the really good programs and teams that lose good players, they’ll go poach somebody to keep them, maybe not to where they were, but keep them at least in the game where they were.
“But I don’t see it as positive, I see it as negative. ... I do think it gives kids an easy way out. (When) you don’t play enough, you don’t have to fight, you don’t have to go through competition.”
As far as NIL, some have suggested high school players and portal transfers are simply going to attend schools that can provide the best opportunities for making money off their own name, image and likeness.
“The thing about it is with the NIL is — I think in theory it’s good,” Self told Coach K. ”Kids’ families shouldn’t have financial difficulty to support their own child with that child being in a position to make a lot of revenue for a school. You’re at Kansas and you’ve got a kid from Florida, and they’re making 10 trips a year (to watch their son play), bringing four people, staying in hotels, renting cars, paying for food, and then you’ve got two or three weekends in the NCAA Tournament over four years. That’s into the ... $150,000, $200,000 range. It’s good in theory — and I know you can’t cap it — but now it’s a situation where (it is) legalized cheating.”
Self noted that in the past, coaches could recruit prospects “off history, tradition, development, putting people in the NBA, winning, exposure, opportunity, immediate opportunity. Now you need all those things, but if somebody offers or spends or has a program in place that will pay you $100,000 more than the other can, it’s not even a hard decision.
“I think the unintended consequences far outweigh what everybody intended it be. I also think it’ll be much harder to coach — to have a locker room that can actually have the intangibles in place to win at the highest level over time because I think jealousy will creep in,” Self added.
Coach K likes KU’s team
Coach K also praised some of KU’s current players during the radio show.
Of junior forward Jalen Wilson, Krzyzewski said: “He is so strong. I love that kid.”
Self responded that Wilson “is not a freak athlete but when he gets downhill he looks like a runaway locomotive — strong and fast.”
Of freshman guard Gradey Dick, Krzyzewski said: “He’s 6-foot-8 and what used to be called ‘automatic.’ When he gets open it’s automatic, it’s going in. This kid is amazing.”
Of Dick, Self responded: “He has a chance. He doesn’t quite defend as well as he shoots it right now. I do think he probably is the best prospect we’ve had here since Josh Jackson. He’s probably the best we’ve had here in a while.”
And of point guard Dajuan Harris, Coach K said to Self: “I don’t think Harris gets enough credit for kind of being an old school point guard. I can see it in his face. He has a great face. When a point guard has not just the ability but the face … he has a calming face. You feel in control. I love the kid.”
Self responded: “If he has numbers ahead of him, he makes the right play every time. He doesn’t care if he scores a point as long as we win. All he wants to do is win.”
This story was originally published December 20, 2022 at 8:15 AM.
