“He never took a day off that way”: Ex-Duke player and asst. coach talks about Coach K’s relentlessness

In the latest episode of the Glue Guys podcast, the hosts, including former Blue Devil Shane Battier, had ex-Duke assistant coach Jay Bilas on the show. For the almost one-hour edition, they primarily talked about legendary college basketball coach Mike "Coach K" Krzyzewski and their experience under his tutelage.

When answering what made Coach K different, Battier, who played four years at Duke, shared that the five-time NCAA Champion coach's life was strictly Blue Devil basketball.

"The time and the energies he spent on his team. Thinking about his team, thinking about every person on that team...he knew everybody intimately in the team because that's all he thought about," Battier expressed about how caring Coach K was. (51:58)

"He didn't have any hobbies. He had his little garden. But, aside from that, all he thought about was Duke basketball, his singular focus...That was a superpower and it was hard," he continued on. (52:19)

Being an assistant tactician for Coach K from 1990 to 1992, Bilas had his own fair share of stories with one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time. He touched on how simple Coach K was and how much work and attention he put into achieving his great feats. He said,

"I don't know how he made it to practice with all of the handwritten notes he was writing to people. He's still writing handwritten notes and every year, we all get a handwritten birthday card from him," Bilas expressingly shared.

"He drove us to be our best self everytime. And, he was relentless in that and never let you get away with anything of coasting or all that. He would call it out right away and I always appreciated that...I think our chief one in life is someone who will make us do what we can and that was Coach K," Bilas explained. (54:24)

"He made us do what we could do everyday and he never took a day off that way," he said to close his statement.

During both Battier's playing days (1997-2001) and Bilas' coaching time (1990-1992) with Coach K, they won championships (2001 with Battier, 1991-1992 with Bilas) with him and it became one of their biggest accolades in each of their careers. Since then, Krzyzewski progressed on to his storied coaching career and eventually stepped down as Duke Men's Basketball head coach in 2022 after 42 years at the helm.

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Jay Bilas shares Coach K thoughts on losing

Jay Bilas calling an NCAA game. Source: Peyton Williams, Getty Images

As the conversation on Coach K furthered on, Bilas reminisced on how negative Coach K was when it came to losing and he let his players and staff know every time. Looking back, the now-commentator said:

"Shane can correct me if I'm wrong if that wasn't his experience. But, when we lost, our lives were freaking miserable."

He then emphasized it stating, "Like miserable. And, that was intentional. He didn't want us to be okay with living in that space...I remember talking to my teammates one time asking, 'Do we want to win? or do we want to avoid what comes with losing?'"

That standard of excellence is what led Krzyzewski to 1202 overall wins as head coach, third most in NCAA history. Among his plethora of accolades, Krzyzewski was also a three-time Naismith College Coach of the Year awardee before handing the keys to spearhead Duke Men's Basketball to Jon Scheyer after the 2021-2022 season.