The job that Mike Krzyzewski did building the Duke basketball program is a classic story of college basketball ascension.
His Blue Devils became perhaps the most dominant team in sports, capturing two straight national titles in the early ’90s and recruiting what seemed like half of the nation’s All-Americans each year.
But Coach K’s program isn’t where it once was; top recruit Greg Monroe just chose Georgetown over the Blue Devils, and Duke isn’t ranked in this year’s AP top 10. After the futility of the J.J. Reddick era, the program hasn’t yet found the means for a resurgence.
I’ve never liked Duke one bit. Maybe it was that year when Pontiac decided to run about a trillion ads replaying that Christian Laettner buzzer beater, or maybe it was the fact that I just can’t stand hearing people describe Reddick’s jump shot like it’s a rare piece of art.
But I’ve been thinking a lot about Coach K’s program recently, because I can’t stop wondering if Ben Howland can build the dynasty that will take its place.
Krzyzewski was a golden boy of the coaching fraternity, tutored by Bobby Knight and hardened by the Army basketball team for which he played.
Coach K’s brilliant ascension to the top of the college basketball world made him a man who could do no wrong. In a lot of ways he still is; just look at the job he did with Team USA this summer.
Howland has yet to make a misstep as a coach, either. He guided Northern Arizona to a NCAA Tournament appearance and then moved on to Pittsburgh, where he built the Panthers into the legitimate Big East power.
Just ask former Pittsburgh coach Ralph Willard, who’s now at Holy Cross, how impressive that feat was.
Then Howland moved on to UCLA, where he’s turned around the storied program by coaching fundamentally sound basketball teams and recruiting players he knows will buy into his system.
Coach K’s story isn’t exactly the same, but there are parallels. Duke had had a good program before Krzyzewski arrived, but they hadn’t won a national title (they did go to the title game in 1964 and 1979).
After eight years in Durham, Coach K’s team went to the Final Four and made it back for the next four years, ultimately winning two national titles in 1991 and 1992.
Howland, as any UCLA fan knows, has already gotten his team to two straight Final Fours. And while it is never entirely fair to expect a Final Four, it is very plausible that the Bruins could push the streak to three in a row this year.
It is unfair to Howland to compare him to a coach like Krzyzewski. It’s like comparing a young basketball player to Michael Jordan; it’s a type of greatness that is never repeated.
But the recent recruiting Howland and his staff have accomplished suggests that he could conceivably build a dynasty that rivals the one Krzyzewski built in the 1990s at Duke.
This year, Howland has his first true blue-chip recruit at his disposal: forward Kevin Love. In 2008, he’ll bring in the best class in the nation, composed of four recruits ranked in the top 30 of the scout.com top 100:
“¢bull; Jrue Holiday will have the chance to make as big an impact that Love is making this year; both are players with the potential to reach the NBA with just one year of college under their belts.
“¢bull; Malcolm Lee and Jerime Anderson are two versatile guards that should thrive in Howland’s system.
“¢bull; Drew Gordon is a low-post banger who will surely fill any holes produced by the possible departure of Love for the NBA Draft.
It doesn’t stop there. UCLA is in the running for two of the top recruits in the high school class of 2009 (Renardo Sidney and Lance Stephenson), and it’s hard to think that both will resist the combination of tradition and success that Howland’s program offers.
Right now, even without Kerry Keating, Howland is getting everything he needs to build a great basketball team.
But the recruiting is really only a part of the equation that coaches use to create powerhouse programs.
The players have to have mettle. They have to be able to look their coach in the eye at the end of a close game and be calm and confident.
What do you think Krzyzewski told his team with 54 seconds remaining, down 10, at rival Maryland back in 2001, when his team completed one of the most jaw-dropping comebacks in ACC basketball history?
And what was it that Howland said to the Bruins in 2006, when his No. 2 seeded Bruins were down big against Gonzaga?
The point is these coaches know what they’re doing. They may not be movie stars, and they may take heat every so often for demanding a lot from their players. But Howland and Krzyzewski both know how to win, and that’s what matters most to players and fans.
Take a deep breath, Bruin fans. This doesn’t mean that UCLA is the new Duke. It doesn’t mean that a bald-headed announcer on ESPN is going to adopt our team as if it were his only son.
It doesn’t mean that our star players are going to flop in the NBA at a bizarre rate.
And it doesn’t mean that UCLA is going to become a team as universally loathed as the Dukies are now.
It just means that UCLA has a coach that is showing us all the right things. Plain and simple, he’s doing all the things that make legendary coaches.
And that means the UCLA faithful are in for a pretty sweet ride.