Carter Boyle: Potential Replacements for Coach K

Duke basketball is synonymous with Coach K who is the public face of Duke basketball. With forty seasons, twelve Final Fours, and five NCAA championships under his belt, Coach K is the type of person Duke fans wish would stay forever. However, at 72, the iconic coach is not getting any younger; sooner or later, the school has to look for a replacement. Luckily, Coach K’s coaching tree is very extensive, with nine head coaches in NCAA Division I and one in the NBA. When the time comes to name Coach K’s successor, they might not have to look further than these three names.

1) Jeff Capel (Pittsburgh). Capel’s ties to Duke and Coach K are extensive. He was a part of the 1993 team that lost to Arkansas in the NCAA championship game and served as an assistant to Coach K from 2011 to 2018. He also served as the de facto head coach whenever Coach K was out. Before coming back to Durham, Capel was named VCU’s head coach at 27 and coached an Oklahoma team led by Blake Griffin to the Elite Eight. With a career record of 189-129, including a 4-3 record in the NCAA Tournament, Capel has both youth and experience.

2) Quin Snyder (Utah Jazz). If Duke is looking for a coach who has been around, nobody fits the bill better than Quin Snyder. After playing for Coach K from 1985 to 1989 and serving as his assistant from 1993-99, Snyder took the head coaching job at Missouri. He has also coached in the NBA D-League and the Euroleague and has turned around the Utah Jazz, who made the playoffs for the third straight season. Snyder’s experience with handling NBA-level talent should help him navigate the one-and-done environment.

3) Tommy Amaker (Harvard). Duke takes a lot of pride in its academic ranking, and getting someone from Harvard is always a big recruiting coup. Tommy Amaker has played and coached under Coach K, and as a head coach at Harvard, the Crimson have gradually been transformed into a perennial Ivy League contender with multiple NCAA Tournament appearances. He has also shown the ability to out-recruit power conference schools; given the cachet that Duke has, Amaker should be able to carry over his recruiting success to Durham should he return to his alma mater.

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