Coach K is retiring from Duke after the 2021-22 season

First Roy Williams at UNC, now Mike Krzyzewski at Duke, per a number of reports. Coach K will have himself a farewell tour, but he’s going to be retiring from coaching following the 2021-22 season.

Duke is expected to name current assistant Jon Scheyer as K’s replacement, keeping it in the family just as the Tar Heels did in replacing Williams with Hubert Davis. Is that wise? Sure, it could work out that way. But I can tell you that I really appreciate these hoity-toity programs taking unnecessary risks all in the name of “family” and “tradition” and various other claptrap.

Rather than expanding into a national search and perhaps poaching a proven head coach from somebody else, these schools are handing the keys to a couple of guys with zero coaching experience. Duke, like UNC, will recruit just fine in the near term on name brand alone, but if the coaching ain’t up to the task, that name recognition will diminish with time.

So we’ll see. Getting an institution like K out of here is obviously good news for NC State regardless of what Duke might have done, but hiring Scheyer is a best-case scenario for us, I think.