With the world watching, recent humiliations in international competition fresh in everyone’s minds, and added expectations from heavily-invested corporate sponsors, it’s more than fair to say that Team USA is facing enormous pressure this summer in Beijing.
Anything but Gold will be considered a failure, and somewhat of an indictment on USA Basketball.
The only person facing even more pressure than the players is their celebrated head coach, Mike Krzyzewski.
Krzyzewski fell short two years ago in his first shot with the professionals. If he cannot win in Beijing with the most talented team he has had, it may be time to wonder if Krzyzewski is little more than an elite college coach.
“Coach knows that his legacy is on the line,” said Shane Battier, who played under Krzyzewski at Duke and with the United States national team.
This is much ado about nothing. Krzyzewski’s heavily-favored (and insanely talented) teams have always done well in big-pressure moments.
Oh, wait…
