One of the consequences of Mike Krzyzewski’s late-career move to one-and-done players is that those gifted players rarely stayed long enough to know their teammates for more than a few months and so didn’t bond as tightly as one might have hoped.
A master psychologist who could have done well as a Dale Carnegie instructor, Coach K never spoke ill of his young players, preferring to shift the blame to himself when possible.
But the truth is, it is harder to build chemistry and team trust when you only have a few months to compete together.
This was illustrated by the class of ‘86, which came in and took some serious beatings before ultimately finishing at 37-3 in their final season.