For a long time, Mike Krzyzewski had to recruit imaginatively. In his early years, he wasn’t able to get top-shelf talent and in the very beginning, he whiffed.
A lot.
In his first big attempt, he lost just about every major target he went after. Then he narrowed his focus and, for a while, told players that he was recruiting him and this other guy and he’d take whoever committed first.
Effectively he reversed the pressure, which was pretty brilliant.
Still, other than Danny Ferry, he wasn’t always getting the huge talents. It took a few years for that to start happening and even then, some things didn’t work out the way he expected.