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Three years into Mike Krzyzewski’s tenure as Duke’s basketball coach, he hadn’t sniffed the NCAA Tournament as Bill Foster’s successor. The local media cranked up the heat ahead of a pivotal Year 4.
The Durham Sun noted Krzyzewski had benefited from mostly “favorable press” up to that point, but it was time to start winning — or face the music. A headline in the Sun after Duke lost 17 games in Krzyzewski’s third season blared: Pressure builds for Krzyzewski to win.
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As sportswriter Al Featherston wrote, Krzyzewski “has produced few miracles,” although the scribe added it was too soon to label him “a loser.” The hometown newspaper ramped up criticism of Krzyzewski’s insistence on playing man-to-man defense, as the hot seat made its way to Duke.
“I’m sensitive to pressure,” Krzyzewski told the media in 1983. “I’m sensitive to how it affects my players.”
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Sensitive, maybe, but Coach K responded beautifully. His fourth season showed he had Duke on the upswing. He was onto something with that whole man-to-man defense idea, too.
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The Winston-Salem Journal predicted Duke would contend for last place in the ACC in 1984. Instead, Duke reached the NCAA Tournament, exiting in the second round.
Out with the pressure. In with the praise.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Duke’s 1984 season comes to mind because Jon Scheyer, Coach K’s hand-picked successor, faces some pressure, albeit of a different ilk, amid his fourth season.
Duke will get all of the pressure and none of the benefit of being the NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 overall seed. The selection committee did the Blue Devils no favors by slotting them into a loaded East Region that features a who’s who collection of elite coaches.
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Pressure becomes an omnipresent companion when succeeding a legend and coaching Duke. Enviable resources and a powerful brand accompany the job, too, and Scheyer continued…
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Publish date : 2026-03-17 09:08:00
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