Coach K spoke highly of that Jim Boeheim character on Monday.
In last season’s game against Duke in the Carrier Dome, Syracuse got a vital win over the Blue Devils that seemed to put the Orange on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble. Perhaps you remember?
After the game we were given a window into Mike Krzyzewski’s mind, showcasing his perception of Jim Boeheim, viz., it became clear that Coach K thinks the world of Jim.
“Obviously I love Jim and his family. Congratulations to them. You don’t know what a treasure you have in him,” Mike Krzyzewski said following Syracuse’s win over Duke last year.
“I’ve been with him these 11 years with USA Basketball. He’s brilliant, competitive, loyal and he doesn’t need his ego scratched. In other words he’s humbled as long as we win. I love the guy and I’ll be forever grateful for him, for what he did and the bond that we developed,” Coach K finished.
Incredible, powerful stuff. And he’s right. Jim is a national treasure — the Syracuse fan base and media alike have been spoiled for decades.
Switching gears, on Monday we were able to get Krzyzewski to expand upon the relationship he built with Jim and what they were able to accomplish together. USA Basketball went 3-0 in Olympic gold medal games with Coach K and Jim Boeheim teaming up together, taking home the gold in Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
“Our families, Jim and I, are as close as you can be. We shared almost 12 years of USA basketball where a lot of great things happened. But one of the great things was how we, our families, got to spend time with one another. They became really really close friends,” Krzyzewski said on Monday.
Coach K also expanded on Jim as a coach, which, keeping him around on the USA Basketball coaching staff already speaks volumes of Jim’s coaching acumen.
“He’s as good as anybody who’s coached the game. That’s why, I may not be smart in some things but I’m smart enough to ask him to be with me for 12 years and that benefitted me and USA Basketball tremendously,” K finished.
By the by, for one reason or another, Duke is almost exclusively playing 2-3 zone these days.
