There is a reason Mike Krzyzewski, Duke's coach of nearly 40 years, is widely viewed as one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time. He's a brilliant tactician, he's widely respected by players and peers in the profession and he's evolved with the times as the sport has changed.

Oh, and he's got a bit of a sense of humor, too.

Former Duke star Quinn Cook spoke to that last point this week on an episode of "Road Trippin," a podcast with UNINTERRUPTED, in which revealed that during his time in Durham Coach K eloquently mixed motivation with some humor at times when the Blue Devils were struggling -- and it worked.

"He loves Beyoncé, he loves Beyoncé. He, like, loves Beyoncé," said Quinn Cook. "I remember one time we weren't practicing the right way and it was trickling into our games, we were barely beating teams we were supposed to manhandle. We come into film in a big dark theater, and he's like 'yeah, Kevin [Duke's video guy] turn it on.' And it was Beyoncé walking, talking to her dancers, talking to everyone in the room, how she wants this, wants that.

"And [Coach K] is showing how hard she's practicing, she's rehearsing for a show; she's going full speed, sweating, she was demanding greatness in her rehearsal. It transferred to her doing a show that night, and that was his correlation of how hard you have to practice for it to transfer into a game. We started practicing a little harder after that."

Krzyzewski, by and large, is mild-mannered, soft-spoken and rarely shows a lighter side to the public, but behind the scenes, Cook says, he can be very relaxed, and also happens to love Beyoncé.

For a 72-year-old who has seen just about everything in the coaching profession over the years, perhaps the most logical way to explain his sustained run at the top of the sport isn't his basketball smarts. It's entirely possible his most valuable attributes as he ages have been his ability to keep his sense of humor, to relate to teenage players, and, tying it all together in the middle of everything has been Queen Bey. Who knew?