After more than four decades at the helm of the Duke Blue Devils, men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski is reportedly going to retire following the 2021-22 campaign. The Hall of Famer plans on stepping down from his post after one last run, per Jeff Goodman of Stadium, a decision there have been rumblings about for a few weeks.
BREAKING: Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has decided to retire after this coming season, multiple sources told @stadium. Official announcement expected soon.
The leading candidate to replace K is assistant and former Duke player Jon Scheyer.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) June 2, 2021
The news was eventually confirmed by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
As @GoodmanHoops is reporting, Mike Krzyzewski plans to retire after the 2021-2022 season. Krzyzewski is finalizing a search process with university officials to name Duke’s associate head coach Jon Scheyer as the coach-in-waiting, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 2, 2021
Coach K’s career is nothing short of legendary, as he has compiled a 1,170-361 record in his career at Army and Duke, including five national championships in Durham, reaching 12 Final Fours in his 41 seasons in Durham. Duke has also won 15 ACC Tournament titles under Coach K and a dozen regular season ACC crowns, as they have been at the top of one of the nation’s best basketball conferences for much of his tenure. Along with an incredible career as a college coach, Krzyzewski will go down as one of USA Basketball’s most successful head coaches, winning three Olympic gold medals in 2008, 2012, and 2016.
As Goodman and Wojnarowski note, the expected replacement for Krzyzewski is current Duke associate head coach and former player Jon Scheyer, who has been an assistant with Duke since 2014 and served as associate head coach since 2018 after the departure of longtime assistant Jeff Capel for Pittsburgh.
Capel and others would certainly have interest in the job, but much like when Roy Williams stepped down at North Carolina after this last season and Hubert Davis was elevated to head coach, one would expect Duke to follow a similar pattern and hire from within. Per Goodman, there is a meeting on Wednesday to determine if Scheyer will indeed be elevated to head coach immediately upon an official announcement of K’s retirement.