Krzyzewski, an executive-in-residence at the Duke business school’s Center of Leadership and Ethics, mounted the bleachers prior to the end-of-practice scrimmage to explain to Leadership Summit members what he had observed of his team and what the session had aimed to accomplish.
“We’re trying to teach three systems at the same time,” he said. “We’re trying to teach an offensive system, a defensive system, and a system of communication. When you’re tired or whatever, one of the first things, especially guys do, is they keep their damn mouth shut. They do not say a damn word.”
The practice stressed talking to one another and getting back to pressure defense, Krzyzewski said, following several days in which the focus was on zone and zone press tactics. The very nature of teaching the less-preferred defenses had caused the team to come to expect stoppages for illustrative purposes. Consequently, with habits not yet firmly established, the squad’s return to continuous action on defense was “only somewhat successful,” the coach observed.
