When this tournament run ends for the Blue Devils, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski will walk off the court one final time as one of the greatest coaches in sports history.
The 2021-22 Blue Devils let an opportunity slip through their fingers when they lost coach K's last home game at Cameron Indoor to rival UNC, and that was a turning point for this year's team, who entered the tournament as a 2-seed.
It was over the next ten days that the veteran coached learned something by looking within and decided an adjustment needed to be made if this team was going to have a shot to reach their full potential.
"During those ten days I learned something, and I saw my team hurt," Krzyzewski shared at a presser yesterday when asked how he is balancing his competitive side with pausing to smell the roses.
"Not just by a loss, but by a whole bunch of things. I just had a good meeting with myself. I said that, 'I've got to do something.' I've got to help in some way, and part of it was my approach with them."
For a variety of reasons, halftimes during the tournament are about five minutes longer than teams get during the regular season, so Krzyzewski decided to do something he'd never done previously in his long and storied coaching career.
"I've never done this before, but against Michigan State, and then again last night, when I come in the locker room I just pull out a chair and I sit with them for about five minutes. I just say 'Okay, here's where we're at,' and just talk to them."
"Then we go as talk as coaches, and then come back and get a little bit more fiery, and that has had a really good impact."
Coach for long enough, and you'll find guys that resist making the types of small, introspective changes like coach K talks about in that presser. But if one of the greatest coaches of all time is willing to look inward to find even a small way to change to get the most out of his guys, that should prove that no one out there is above doing the same.
Duke will face off against Arkansas tonight at 8:49pm EST with a trip to the Final Four on the line.