Joel Huerto is managing editor of One Man Fastbreak.net and a sports consultant with Opposing Views.com.
He has been a member of the sports media for almost 20 years, which
included nine years as a news editor at the Los Angeles Times. He will
cover a variety of topics, from coach and player profiles to hot-button
issues. Joel is also known as "maniLA ice" for his cool demeanor in the
friendly confines of the YMCA hardwood. He loves to shoot the "tear
drop" and prefers to play zone to hide his deficiencies on defense.
The infatuation with Coach Mike Krzyzewski has got to stop.
I know he's the most celebrated college basketball coach for his squeaky-clean program and his impressive NCAA tournament resume, but the inordinate amount of man crushes on this guy is getting ridiculous.
ESPN throws so much love at Krzyzewski's feet that the network
might as well change its college hoops coverage to the "Coach K Classic." Sure, the man has done a lot for college athletics
and I am well aware of his three national championships ... but he's not John Wooden! He's not even Bob Knight.
Give Knight the kind of resources Coach K gets at Duke and The General just might challenge Wooden's 10 national titles. Remember, Knight taught Coach K everything he knows. Krzyzewski's offensive and defensive philosophies at Duke are all products of the Knight School.
Besides, Coach K hasn't won The Big One since 2001 and most of his success came during the 1990s when he was blessed with bags full of high school All-Americans. And I have not forgotten that he was the same coach who lost to Yugoslavia and Greece as caretaker of Team USA in the 2007 FIBA World Championships.
Coach K had LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Dwight Howard and Chris Paul at his disposal and got outcoached by his Greek counterpart. Krzyzewski was given a full training camp to assemble the "greatest team ever" and couldn't deliver a gold medal.
Had Larry Brown been given a full season as Team USA coach, things might have been different at the 2004 Athens Games. If it wasn't for Kobe Bryant's late-game heroics
in the gold-medal game at this year's Beijing Games, the Great Coach K would have been 0-3 as coach of USA Basketball.
Year after year, ESPN broadcasts a minimum of five Duke games. Dick Vitale, someone who I admire and respect, gets teary-eyed whenever Coach K is mentioned during a conversation. As much as he's given a brand name to the sport, it's time that we stop the love affair with the Dukies and their coach.
The days of dominance for Duke basketball is long gone and Coach K is no longer alone atop the college basketball coaching landscape.
It is not humanly possible for me to agree with any other article more than I agree with this.
Posted by: Reverend Paul Revere | November 14, 2008 at 09:03 AM