Sitting down with Coach K

The Chronicle's Sports Editor Meredith Shiner had an exclusive interview with Coach K to talk about Duke, his team and the summer's basketball news.

Over the past year, how do you feel the University, particularly the Department of Athletics, handled the lacrosse situation?

It's easy to look back and say everything that you would have done or that could have been done. Instead of rehashing those things-we could have taken care of the kids better, we could have done this better-Overall we could have done that better. Could we have done that worse? Absolutely, we could have done it a lot worse. Right now, especially [after the conclusion of the Nifong hearings], there's a great deal of closure now that has happened with Nifong. We need to be in a healing phase, and I want to be a part of that as much as I can.. No matter what, you've got to be there for them-that's the job of a parent, a coach, a school or whatever. There were so many lives to this thing that it got complicated, and in that complication, I think some mistakes were made, including the proper care of our kids.

After last season's ACC Tournament, John Feinstein wrote that "Duke isn't Duke anymore." What do you think?

We've had success that's off the charts. So were we that? No. We weren't. We only won four out of our last 12 games... 'Anymore?' I wouldn't agree with that, and John wouldn't agree with that-not as long as I'm coaching. I don't think that's what he meant. He meant now. And he's right. The way we played, the way we handled end-of-game situations, the youth of our program, there weren't the stars. We've had more Wooden Award winners than any school even close. We've had more national players of the year than other conferences. So were we that in the last year? Hell no. Can we be that again? Yeah. I don't know if anybody can though... We've been an extreme. But I'm fine with that. I also accept those remarks. I don't think it's criticism. I would tell you. Were we like my teams of the previous five years? Hell no. Did you watch us play? Not that those kids didn't try, but they were the youngest team that Duke's had in 60 years, but still Duke. So the people who are competing against you, who we've been winning against or winning championships over, this is their time. So those kids had a rude awakening. It's was a tough year for our team, and we need to take that as a positive and build from it and not making any excuses. I'm looking forward to John writing an article next year saying Duke is back.

Some writers were highly critical of Billy Donovan for backing out of his contract with the Magic. You faced similar circumstances with the Lakers in 2004. Do you empathize with him and is there external pressure to have pro coaching success to fulfill a career?

I don't think a collegiate coach thinks that he needs to go to the professional level to fulfill whatever your time here on earth is supposed to be. In a lot of ways college coaches get more notoriety. It's two different worlds. So, no, I don't think that. As far as what happened with Billy, he's 42 years old, he wins back-to-back national championships. Kentucky wants him. The Grizzlies want him. More things are public and he probably made a rush to judgment. A lot of the stuff I've done is private and no one even found out about it. The most public of all was the Lakers, but, at that time, I'm 57 years old. There was never going to be a rush to judgment. I had people around me who said, 'Don't do anything until you're sure.' Who knows? Maybe he didn't have that. It seemed really quick.... I understand how it happens, whether it's right or wrong, I understood it. The worst thing would be for Magic and for Billy not to want to be together-passionately- because if you're going to succeed, whether it be at Florida or with whatever pro team, you better want to be there badly.