Back in August, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said he would likely stay on as a consultant to USA Basketball after he led the Olympic team to a gold medal in Beijing.
According to recent reports, though, Krzyzewski's involvement with the team could be much more direct. Yahoo! Sport's Adrian Wojnarowski reports that USA Basketball's Jerry Colangelo plans to offer Krzyzewski the opportunity to reprise his role as head coach in the 2012 London Olympics.
"We’ve yet to talk about how much of a level of interest he has in doing it again, if at all,” Colangelo told Wojnarowski. “We’ve saved that conversation. There’s no need to push that envelope so soon. I wanted him to get back to Duke and get ready for his college year. But I do believe a great deal in continuity."
Krzyzewski's role as Team USA head coach was all-consuming, to the point that he said he thought about his second job every day. Although he insists the publicity afforded to him by the Olympic experience will benefit Duke in the long run, the Blue Devils lost on the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament in 2007 and 2008, the two years that his Olympic responsibilities were at their peak.
Krzyzewski brought his associate head coaches, Steve Wojciechowski and Chris Collins, with him to China, but recruiting didn't take a significant hit. In fact, after the three returned as the darlings of college basketball, they received commitments from Ryan Kelly, Josh Hairston and Tyler Thornton.
We're sure the issue will come up after tonight's 2K Sports Classic final, so we'll let you know when Krzyzewski deflects attention as soon as it happens.
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