Coach K: I Saw Zion Williamson Smiling Behind the Bench
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski welcomed back several of his former players on Saturday night, when the Blue Devils’ 94-60 home win over Notre Dame coincided with the NBA All Star Break.
The biggest name on hand was Zion Williamson, who showed up early in the second half, right before Duke went on a huge run.
“I haven’t gotten a chance to talk to him yet,” Coach K said afterward, “I just saw him smiling behind the bench with Quinn (Cook)—two of the great smiles in the history of Duke basketball, those two guys. It says a lot that he came back, that they came back. Tyus (Jones) was here. I don’t know who all was here, I’ll see when I go back there. For Zion, he played last night (in the All Star Weekend Futures Game). I love the fact that they want to maintain their relationship with this great university. That’s one of the reasons they came here, not just to play but to be a part of it, and to get that welcome, that helps.”
The NBA players got to watch Duke wear the Irish out.
“We have more depth,” Krzyzewski said. “We play at a quicker pace. We have good legs. We’re in really good shape. The way we’ve done the whole season is to play a lot of guys, so we can stay fresh. The thing Vernon [Carey] did today, he played through tired. They don’t play at the pace we do, so part of it is being able to - if you run a mile in six minutes and we run a mile in 5:15, let’s run a mile at five tonight but in order to do that you’ve got to play defense.”
