Duke Basketball: Top 25 Players to Ever Play for Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski

Mike Krzyzewski of Duke Basketball is one of the best college basketball coaches ever. With the many great players that he’s coached over the years, who is the greatest?

Now and days, college basketball head coaches tend to be fired after three years if the program doesn’t make a big turnaround. Many (including myself) think that’s too short a time since their recruiting classes haven’t even come to fruition.

Good thing Mike Krzyzewski of Duke Basketball didn’t start around this time because he likely would’ve gotten the ax. After a solid first season, the team went a combined 21-34 in years two and three. But the school stood by him, which turned out to be a great thing.

In every full season since, the Blue Devils have been apart of every NCAA Tournament, with numerous Final Four appearances. Coach K is currently the active leader when it comes to national titles (5), including the 1991 and 1992 season, where they won it back-to-back.

For most of the 40 years as a head coach, Krzyzewski has been known for his development of players over their four seasons. But in this last decade, he’s gone the “one and done” route, getting the top prospects out of high school. That happened again in the upcoming class, ranked No.1 in the country again.

Speaking of No.1, that’s where I had this coach ranked in terms of the active head coaches in college basketball. It was a fairly easy call, with Roy Williams of North Carolina the only other with a case to make.

With all the other coaches, I’ll be ranking the very best that have ever played for this man. Considering the number of Hall of Famers and national titles involved, this was by far the hardest list to do.