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USATSI

In a surprise meeting with the Cameron Crazies, Duke basketball's infamously raucous student section, coach Mike Krzyzewski said that the death of Kobe Bryant was weighing on his mind leading up to his viral outburst toward fans in Wednesday's game against Pitt. Broadcast cameras caught Coach K chewing out his own team's student section at the end of the first half.

What sparked the incident was Krzyzewski mishearing a classic Cameron heckle and thinking it was a personal insult toward opposing coach Jeff Capel instead. The "sit with us" chant is typically reserved for former players and coaches that come back to play at Cameron. Capel played for the Blue Devils from 1993 to 1997 and was an assistant for them from 2011 to 2018.

But, as the Duke Chronicle put it, Coach K took steps to make amends with the Crazies while they were camping out in Krzyzewskiville -- the line that undergraduate students get in to secure game tickets.

The 72-year-old coach explained to a group of 40 to 50 students that he was in a "fragile emotional state" because of the death of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, who he coached to two Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012. Combine that with the fact that Capel is still a close friend of Coach K's and the result is apparently a powder keg of emotions ready to burst on anyone, even the people who are cheering loudly for your success. He then ended his 30-minute speech by showing a clip of past student sections he wanted to use as examples for the proper way to act during games -- the man sure does love his postgame lectures.

Nowhere in the report is any sign that an apology was made toward the college students he admonished. The closest thing to that was the quote he gave the reporters on Wednesday where he apologized for misunderstanding what the students said, but added that he thought the chant shouldn't have happened so early in the game.