From a distance, the job of replacing Mike Krzyzewski seems impossible. Up close, it looks even harder. The key, Jon Scheyer knows, is not to be Coach K, but to be himself.
This story was originally published on April 6, 2022. It was included in a year-end list of SI’s best stories of 2022.
At 11:42 p.m. last Saturday, Duke’s head men’s basketball coach walked out of the locker room, and it wasn’t Mike Krzyzewski. Jon Scheyer, the guy after The Guy, went back to the team hotel, the Intercontinental in New Orleans, saw his family for a bit, and then headed to Krzyzewski’s room, where Coach K was recovering from the loss to North Carolina with his wife, Mickie, and daughter Debbie Savarino.