NCAA selection committee has unique task of judging Duke without Coach K
Coach K's time away means Duke will be examined differently, and with reason
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4 min read
One of the most well-known stipulations when it comes to NCAA Tournament selection and seeding is this: When a player of significant value (a starter, essentially) is injured indefinitely and/or misses a notable amount of games, the selection committee must take said player's absence into account.
This happens almost every year, as tournament-caliber teams either endure season-ending injuries to star players (Kenyon Martin at Cincinnati is the most infamous example), or they have major players miss out on multiple games (Michigan State was presented with this issue regarding Denzel Valentine last season).
This season, the NCAA Tournament selection committee will be presented a unique challenge. It's going to have to evaluate Duke six ways from (Selection) Sunday. The 10-person panel will take Duke's performance over the next month or so into special account and judge the team on its merits -- while Mike Krzyzewski is not coaching the team.
They'll do this in addition to judging Duke previously without Harry Giles, and without Jayson Tatum and, perhaps, without Marques Bolden. Of course, they'll also be analyzing the Blue Devils without Grayson Allen, however long he winds up being suspended.
But the Jeff Capel substitution could be the most interesting and debated Duke item of all.
Pardon the double-negative, but there is no reason why the committee should not do this. The protocol has long been in place; it's just never been done with such a high-profile coach before. So now this becomes an interesting side topic, perhaps something we'll give more conversation to in the lead-up to Selection Sunday. Those in basketball will tell you that a coach's influence on a team -- specifically at the college level -- can sometimes have more effect than any player.
When the coach in question is Mike Krzyzewski, the influence and importance is undeniable. Because the situation is out of his control, the NCAA will -- fairly -- judge Duke with and without him this season. Will it impact the team's seeding? That is to be determined. If it does, will we find out? We should. I believe current committee chair Mark Hollis (athletic director at Michigan State) will be transparent and honest with that information after the bracket is revealed.
From the outside looking in, though, there is a matter that seems contradictory. Here's the conflict: The NCAA is going to judge Duke in a separate box when Krzyzewski isn't coaching, yet Coach K will be credited with all wins and losses the team accrues in his absence. How can it go both ways? Critics recall that Krzyzewski's other season-imposing back problem, in 1994-95, sidelined him for a majority of the year. Duke started 9-3 with K, then surgery forced him away from the court until the next season. The Blue Devils went 4-15 the rest of the way, those wins and losses credited to interim coach Pete Gaudet, not Krzyzewski.
The forgotten/overlooked fact of that matter: Even before Krzyzewski left Duke that season, the school told the NCAA it would credit the remaining (then-unknown) record to Gaudet. The NCAA reached out to Duke on Monday; the school said that this time around, the team's record would remain with Krzyzewski. In matters of coaching hiatuses put upon by teams and/or conferences, the records accumulated are up to the coaches and/or conferences. When the NCAA hands down a punishment, by rule, the coaching record is always assigned to the interim. (Thus, Syracuse assistant Mike Hopkins has a career 4-5 record as coach of the Orange.)
Why the change for Duke this time? In part it's because Krzyzewski will still be in contact and around the team not too long after his surgery, and he'll be returning to the bench, if all goes well, within a month. Although he won't be on the sideline for anywhere from 7-11 games, the team is still in effect his. So there is room for both approaches here. Duke can choose to stick its upcoming record with Krzyzewski, and the NCAA can and should evaluate Duke, in all of its incompletion, in Coach K's absence.
It's just one of many factors at play here. The Grayson Allen suspension could loom as a factor that's nearly as important, depending on how long he's out. With the way the season's gone so far in Durham, who knows what other twists could come? As Gary Parrish wrote, there's never been a preseason No. 1 team that's gone through so much through the first seven weeks of its season. Amid all this, Duke still just has two losses.
Krzyzewski will coach Duke's home game against Georgia Tech on Wednesday night. After that, the committee members will take note of how the team changes -- if at all -- while one of the greatest coaches in basketball history is forced to watch how his team endures without him in the huddle. It's going to be interesting to watch, and it could have unusual impact on this year's NCAA Tournament bracket.
Clarification/correction: A previous version of this piece included a paragraph regarding how the NCAA handles matters of coaching suspensions, with the stipulation suspensions are viewed differently than a coach taking medical leave. Information passed along Wednesday from the NCAA subsequently clarified a communication error. The initial interpretation was that Jim Boeheim's NCAA-mandated suspension from 2015-16 had no impact on the committee's discussions regarding Syracuse. Instead, the NCAA made clear to point out that any and all player and coaching absences, regardless of reason, are taken into account when discussing seeding and selection.
