DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke practiced Wednesday without coach Mike Krzyzewski, something that almost never happens.
But it's not as if the program fell apart for a day. Everything seemed to be going along just fine for ESPN.com's preseason No. 1 pick.
Krzyzewski was in New York for the news conference announcing him as USA Basketball's men's senior national team coach for 2006-08, which will include the 2006 World Championships in Japan and then, if the U.S. qualifies, the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
On Wednesday, the Duke machine rolled on without him -- and when it needs to in the springs and summers of the next three years, it should continue to churn without a hiccup, whether it's in recruiting or offseason skill development. Duke's staff and players feel that way. So, too, does archrival North Carolina coach Roy Williams.
"He's one of the few, if not the only one, that could do it and not have his program be hurt from it," Williams said earlier Wednesday from his Chapel Hill office.
Williams was an assistant on the 2004 U.S. Olympic team that won the bronze medal in Athens, Greece. He said he missed 31 days from his program while with USA Basketball in the summer of 2003 in a qualifying tournament in Puerto Rico (the U.S. had to qualify after finishing sixth in the World Championships in Indianapolis in 2002). Williams said he then missed 36 days of hands-on operations while with USA Basketball last year.
"I was worried sick about it," Williams said. "I was on the phone in Athens at 4:30 a.m. with someone putting up the phone [to a TV] so I could hear
Tyler Hansbrough's announcement that he was going to North Carolina. I already knew the answer, but I was still worried. I was trying to make two or three phone calls from over there and it wasn't easy."The names "North Carolina" and "Duke" typically recruit themselves to some extent, but Williams was in a different predicament from Krzyzewski's current plight, taking over the Tar Heels from Matt Doherty when they were in a critical recruiting phase. Other than the 1994-95 season when Coach K was missing with back problems, Duke hasn't dipped in a couple of decades and continues to select its recruits, rather than having to constantly wait for a recruit to choose them.
Williams said Duke's veteran staff will aid in any potential issues of Krzyzewski being away from the team.
"He has always allowed them to be seen, heard and do postgame radio shows and TV shows and those guys --
Chris Collins, Steve Wojciechowski and Johnny Dawkins -- make appearances on his behalf," Williams said. "It's not like he's sending three rookies out there recruiting for him."Krzyzewski (likely along with mentor Bob Knight) is one of the two most recognized active coaches in the game. So, missing out on an AAU tournament or even a potential campus visit in September shouldn't be an issue.
"The infrastructure is there for Duke to keep rolling," Collins said Wednesday outside of Cameron Indoor Stadium's court. "Kids know what he'll be doing. If he misses a tournament here or there, kids will see he's representing the national team. People will be drawn. It's not about who sees us the most.
"Duke has become a brand name and kids equate Duke with Coach K and a great program," Collins said. "We won't miss a beat."
The upperclass players feel similarly comfortable with the arrangement.
"It won't have a big effect because when he's gone during the summer time, the assistant coaches instill what we need to do for the upcoming season," Duke senior All-American
Shelden Williams said."In the offseason, we see coach, but he doesn't have a lot of basketball interaction with us, just like a lot of other head coaches around the country," fellow Blue Devils senior All-American
J.J. Redick said. "In the spring [before the summer], our assistant coaches usually work with us as well as our strength and conditioning coaches."
