When Coach K shared wholesome story about coaching grandson Michael Savarino at Duke

Retired college basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski had a storied career with the Duke Blue Devils, amassing five national championships in four decades. During his stint at the helm of the Durham-based unviersity from 1980 to 2022, he became one of the greatest coaches of all time.

One of Coach K's most memorable experiences may have been when he had the opportunity to coach his grandson Michael Savarino from 2019 to 2022. During media day for the 2019-20 season, Krzyzewski shared a wholesome story regarding the then walk-on prospect.

"Interesting, funny thing for me. I'm not sure you'll laugh, but so we do a bunch of things every practice where we measure everything, their work load, their sprinting speed, their distances. We have this catapult system that does that, and I get a report every day from our sports scientist, Nick Potter," he shared (0:40).

Coack K then mentioned his grandmother, who was very adamant in Savarino getting more runs in with the storied program.

"And so, I showed Nick, I said, 'You know, when Dallas is developing a habit of playing faster and she's looking and it has all the guys, and she's like, 'Where's Michael?'' And Michael, well, he didn't play. He's a walk on. So, it was the first time a grandmother has given me a hard time about playing time. You know, I said we got to stop," Krzyzewski said. (1:06)

"Don't be asking about Michael because now I'm worried she want, she never looked at those things. Yeah, I'm waiting for, 'Where's the, where's Nick's report?' You know, so then she'll look up like, 'He only did this? But the mother so far has been okay, but we haven't played any games. But, it's a cool thing," he concluded.

Savarion spent two seasons at Duke, playing a total of 13 games with averages of 1.0 points, 0.5 rebounds, 0.1 assists and 0.1 steals per contest.

Mike Krzyzewski said Michael Savarino was a well-accepted kid on his team

During the press conference, Mike Krzyzewski reflected on how beloved his grandson Michael Savarino was despite being a young walk-on at the time. Savarino already earned a few nicknames, showing how well he had integrated the team.

"Well, it's been great because he's not on the team because he's my grandson. So he, you know, he would be a pretty good division two player, but he wanted to come to Duke. He could get in and he knows every, he knows the way of the land. And he, I think he's really helped us and he's been accepted by his teammates as Michael, or Mike," Krzyzewski shared.(0:00)

"Or whatever the hell they call him, and knucklehead, probably sometimes. But he, he is, he's a really good kid and a tough kid," he added.

The Duke Blue Devils are now coached by Jon Scheyer who was an assistant coach to Krzyzewksi from 2014 to 2018 and an associate coach from 2018 until the 78-year-old retired.