Coach K. Ian O'Connor

Coach K.  The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski.   Ian O’Connor.

 

Some time ago in Chicago, Emily Krzyzewski gave some important motherly advice to her younger son.    She asserted that he be the driver of his own bus but be very careful in who he lets on for the ride.    That message seemed to resonate with the main character of the book, Coach K, throughout his career.  

As biographies go, they are as interesting as the person being authored as well as the content the writer is able to produce.   Ian O’Connor delivers a robustly in-depth look at one of the nation’s best college basketball coaches and leaders of this generation.

The story of former Duke basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski, is complicated, intriguing, surprising and inspiring all at the same time.     O’Connor gets detailed in the coach’s upbringing in Chicago, his experiences as a student athlete in the US Military Academy, the enduring of playing for a controversial coaching figure, the struggle to find success in his chosen profession and ultimately his ability to endure two scores as a top division one basketball coach. 

Naturally in a career that spans nearly five decades the biography is going to include many characters, relationships, triumphs, setbacks, praise and foibles.    O’Connor provides all of that in this bestseller.    Now coach K did not talk to the author for this book but he did not stand in his way or object to this book being authored or published.  (Krzyzewski hopes to write his own book.)

Myriad layers include coach K’s often tempestuous fifty-five-year relationship with Hall of fame coach Bobby Knight.   This includes playing for him at Army and coaching against him while Knight presided over Indiana.   Another phase of the book delves into his early struggles at Duke and the confident support of his athletic director during those days.    There are sections that discuss the Hall of famer’s relationship with legends club members including coaches Dean Smith at UNC and Jim Valvano at NC State.   

As Krzyzewski gains traction while guiding the Blue Devils to numerous final four appearances in the 1980’s and eventually winning a first national championship in the early 1990’s, the author explains how coach K weathers the many changes in the college game.    O’Connor, a New York Times columnist, provides insight to coach K’s philosophy and adaptations to recruiting players with more natural ability and athleticism.  This leading to the new problem of basketball players leaving school before eligibility had expired---the one and done approach.     This change causing some friction within the duke nation and among coach K critics.    

Coaching at a high level can lead to accusations or even scandal and this Raleigh-based school was not above reproach.   One of his many assistants who played for him at Duke, slowly changes the way Duke orchestrates their recruiting game. Reports of one player taking money prior to enrollment at the school gave some pause but did not end up affecting the school, coach or player.    Events like this generated an external attitude of Duke elitism and being above the fray or, more to the point, getting the favorable calls with the NCAA rulings.    Even the shielding of coach K from his wife, Micki, gets considerable mention especially in the mid 1990’s when the coach missed an entire season due to back surgery and recovery.     

Occasionally the reader could get lost in the weeds trying to keep track of the many flashbacks in time that O’Connor inserted.    While the book flowed nicely from one chapter to another, the reporting of Krzyzewski’s trials and tribulations with the Olympic games may have carried on for longer than necessary.   

Nevertheless, the three hundred and thirty pages are filled with incredible details of one of the most successful coaches in modern basketball history.    It is worth the effort to follow the life and times of this intriguing leader.    It is enough to make one wonder how the recently retired coach could pen a better report of himself but it has been one heck of a bus ride.      

• You might like to read this book if you are a fan of Mike Krzyzewski.
• You might like to read this book if you are a Duke basketball fan.
• You might like to read this book if you are a fan of ACC basketball.
• You might like to tread this book if you are a college basketball fan.
• You might like to read this book if you like to read about successful leaders and coaches.
• You might like to read about this book if you like to read informative biographies of well know American subjects.

Read more about the author on Twitter:    https://twitter.com/Ian_OConnor