Mike Krzyzewski Confirms He’s Out as Team USA Coach


Despite USA Basketball’s hope that he’d reconsider, Duke University head coach Mike Krzyzewski confirmed today that he will no longer sit on Team USA’s bench. Coach K’s seven-year reign is over. Per ESPN: “Krzyzewski said USA Basketball will likely name his successor this summer in preparation for the 2014 world championships in Madrid. ‘I’ve loved, loved, loved, and it’s been an honor being with the USA Basketball team,’ Krzyzewski said. ‘And to coach the team and work with [chairman and president Jerry Colangelo] for seven years has been marvelous. And we’re in a good spot,’ Krzyzewski added. ‘We need to keep building.’ Krzyzewski was hired by Colangelo in the wake of the team’s disappointing sixth-place finish at the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis and a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics in Greece. Under Krzyzewski, Team USA beat Spain in consecutive Olympic finals, in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012. His U.S. team won the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey without a single Olympian on the roster.”