USA Today: Why Coach K just won't retire from Team USA or Duke

LAS VEGAS ? Mike Krzyzewski sensed ? for the first time last year ? the end of his long and successful coaching career with Duke and USA Basketball.

"I'm in my mid-60s. Is it time? Is that time coming up? I never think of the end, and I said maybe it is," Krzyzewski told USA TODAY Sports on Thursday in meeting room at Wynn hotel and casino. "You start thinking, 'Wow, this is wearing you down a little bit.' Maybe it's just that time or that time is coming because for the most part, I don't get worn down coaching."

That's the reason Krzyzewski initially said he wasn't returning to coach the U.S. men's basketball team for another season. He didn't think he would be still coaching Duke by then. "As a military person, you wouldn't take a unit into that level of combat if you weren't combat-ready," he said. "That would be the worst thing a leader could do."

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But the 2012-13 Blue Devils season ? in which Duke finished second in the Atlantic Coast Conference and reached the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight ? rejuvenated Krzyzewski.

"I had a really great year with my Duke team. I loved my Duke team this past year," he said. "Most of the time, I love my Duke team. But I got a little bit refreshed."

He decided that he would coach Duke through the 2015-16 season ? "at least" ? and with that decision out of the way, he decided to coach Team USA in the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain and 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

"My wife (Mickie) has always told me, 'Don't make the decision to stop coaching when you're tired,' " Krzyzewski said. "For the most part you shouldn't make decisions if you're tired because you're weaker and you're not sharp."

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The final week of the Olympics was difficult for Krzyzewski, who is 62-1 since taking over the national team in 2005 and has won two Olympic gold medals and one world championship. Upon reflection, USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo described Krzyzewski as an irritable bear.

"That was probably, outside of when we first started and lost to Greece, that last week was the hardest week for me in coaching the U.S. team, and not because of attitudes because of the situation," Krzyzewski said.

After a 66-game, lockout-shortened NBA season in 2011-12, Krzyzewski said U.S. players, four of whom played in the NBA Finals, were "fried mentally."

"The championship ended eight days before we started training camp. These guys, they were on their last emotional legs," he said.

"London was a bear. Our country, and I'm not complaining about this, most people think winning is just easy, and it's not. Because when we had that approach in the late '90s and early 2000s, we were either close to being beaten or were beaten and also we weren't who we should be on the international stage as far as how we acted. These guys had been fighting for a long time, and I was worried."

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Team USA left London with gold, and Krzyzewski said he was done coaching it. But even two weeks after the Olympics, at the Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Colangelo said he sensed Krzyzewski was interested in returning. Krzyzewski said he was interested in returning to USA Basketball but wasn't sure in what capacity.

"I will always have an interest in USA Basketball," Krzyzewski said. "Talking at the Hall of Fame, it was 'How I could stay on and help (in any capacity).' You do it for seven years, it's tough to go cold turkey and also, it's not good for the organization because we had been successful."

But Colangelo still wanted Krzyzewski to coach. After Duke's season, Krzyzewski met with his wife and family and the president, athletic director and his coaching staff at Duke, seeking opinions on another run with the U.S. men's team.

Then, Krzyzewski and his wife met with Colangelo and USA Basketball men's national team director Sean Ford met in Las Vegas in May.

"As I was going through, it became evident to me that I should do this," he said.

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Source: http://www.bbstate.com/news/707620

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