Krzyzewski coaches tree grows again
Capel latest to leave Coach K’s side for chance to run another program
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
With his hiring at Pitt Tuesday, Jeff Capel once again joins a fairly large fraternity of coaches who have moved from Mike Krzyzewski’s side to a bench of their own over the past 38 years, dating to when he began at Duke in 1980. Granted, Capel’s situation is slightly different, as he, unlike many of the men listed below, was a Division I head coach before joining Krzyzewski’s staff.
The same principle applies, though. Duke is one of the game’s perennial powers, meaning anyone within the reach of that aura and mystique is bound to get their share of opportunities — because of their own abilities, of course, but also simply because of who it is they sit next to, a trend that extends to basically any sport, college or pro.
Here’s a look at how former Duke assistant coaches have fared as Division I head coaches, listed in chronological order:
Mike Dement
Cornell, UNC Greensboro, SMU: Record: 331-371 (.472) ... Dement was more of a courtesy inclusion, as he was only an assistant at Duke for one season — 1982-83 — and after that, was an assistant for three seasons at Cornell and East Carolina before getting his first head-coaching job. His work at Cornell earned him a job at UNC Greensboro, where he parlayed a 236 season into the SMU gig. He was solid-yet-unspectacular there, going 140-123 in nine seasons with no NCAA tournaments before being fired in 2004. He finished his career by returning to Greensboro, where he spent six-plus seasons.
Chuck Swenson
William & Mary: Record: 62-134 (.316) ... The guinea pig of this whole experiment. Swenson was by Krzyzewski’s side for the early part of his career, from Indiana to Army to the first seven seasons at Duke. From there, he accepted the job at William & Mary, another academically prestigious school in the South. The Duke blueprint never really flourished with the Tribe, as it won more than 10 games only twice in Swenson’s seven seasons (to be fair, William & Mary has never made an NCAA tournament). He spent the remainder of his career as an assistant coach, occupying various roles on staffs at Penn State, Michigan and yes, Duke.
Bob Bender
Illinois State, Washington: Record: 175-200 (.467) ...A former Duke guard, Bender spent six seasons on the Blue Devils staff before taking the head-coaching job at Illinois State in 1989. He did fairly well in his four seasons there, leaving with a record of 60-57 and handing the reigns to a Kansas assistant named Kevin Stallings. From there, Bender went to Washington, leading the Huskies to the NCAA tournament in 1998 and 1999, but he floundered late in his tenure, going 31-58 in his final three seasons. He was fired in 2002 and since then has worked as an assistant coach and scout in the NBA.
Mike Brey
Delaware, Notre Dame: Record: 502-254 (.664) ...Perhaps the most recognizable, and certainly the most successful, name on this list, Brey was an assistant at Duke from 1987-95. His time there earned him the head job at Delaware, where he led the Blue Hens to at least 20 wins in his final three seasons (of a five-season tenure) and, in the process, attracted the attention of Notre Dame. He has transformed the Irish into one of the steadier, more consistently successful programs in college basketball. Under the guidance of Brey, the program’s all-time coaching wins leader, Notre Dame has made the NCAA tournament in nine of the past 12 seasons. Among Duke-assistants-turned-head-coaches, he’sthe gold standard.
Tommy Amaker
Seton Hall, Michigan, Harvard: Record: 387-258 (.600) ... The man who kicked off the modern wave of former Duke standouts and assistants who later became head coaches, Amaker has compiled an interesting career. He immediately got a major-conference job, going to Seton Hall, where he parlayed a surprise Sweet 16 run in 2000 into the Michigan job after the Wolverines just missed out on hiring Rick Pitino. In Ann Arbor, he took over a program reeling from NCAA sanctions but was never able to get it over the hump, missing out on the NCAA tournament in each of his six seasons.After being fired in 2007, he quickly landed at Harvard, where he has found a productive niche and built the Crimson into the Ivy League’s top program, one that has four NCAA tournament appearances in the past seven seasons (it had just one beforeAmaker’s tenure).
Tim O’Toole
Fairfield: Record: 112-120 (.483) ... An admittedly unfamiliar name, O’Toole is sort of in Dement’s realm, as he was an assistant at Seton Hall underAmaker for one season before accepting his first head-coaching position. In 1998, he took over at Fairfield, where he won more than 15 games only twice in eight seasons. His contract was not renewed in 2006 and since then, he has been an assistant. He is currently the associate headcoach at California.
Quin Snyder
Missouri: Record: 126-91 (.581) ... Another former Duke guard, Snyder became the coach at Missouri in 1999 at age 32 after a six-year stint as an assistant with the Blue Devils. He started off well with the Tigers, taking them to the NCAA tournament in his first four seasons, including an Elite Eight run in 2002. Things slid from there, though, as they were 42-42 in his final three seasons and were hit with three years of probation stemming from impermissible benefits provided by an assistant. He resigned in the 2005-06 season, but has found new life in the NBA, where he is in his fourth season as the head coach of the Utah Jazz, whom he led to the playoffs last season.
David Henderson
Delaware: Record: 85-93 (.478) ... When Brey left for Notre Dame in 2000, Delaware tried to recreate what it was losing, tapping again into the Duke assistant pipeline by bringing in Henderson. The results, however, didn’t work out quite the same. Henderson went 20-10 in his first season but went 65-83 in his final five, ending with a 9-21 mark in 2006 that ultimately led to his ouster.
Johnny Dawkins
Stanford, Central Florida: Record:199-140 (.587) ... A Duke standout and former firstround NBA draft pick, Dawkins worked alongside Krzyzewski for 10 seasons, nine of them coming as the associatehead coach. That background earned him the job at Stanford, where he led the Cardinal to at least 20 wins in four of his eight seasons, but had just one NCAA tournament appearance in that time (he made it count, though, going to the Sweet 16 in 2014). He was fired in 2016 but quickly was hired by Central Florida, where he has gone 43-25 the pasttwo seasons.
Chris Collins
Northwestern: Record: 8877 (.533) ... After a 13-year stay as an assistant at Duke, Collins, son of former NBA player and coach Doug Collins, moved back to his hometown of Chicago to accept the challenge of rebuilding Northwestern in 2013. The Wildcats slowly improved in each of his first four seasons, culminating with their first trip to (and win in) the NCAA tournament in 2017. Though his team disappointed this pas season, finishing 15-17 after a majority of its tournament squad returned, Collins undeniably has succeeded in his first head-coaching job and is maybe the brightest coaching prospect of which the school can currently boast.
Steve Wojciechowski
Marquette: Record: 73-59 (.553) ... Wojciechowski quickly transitioned to coaching after the end of his playing career in 1998. He was an assistant at Duke from 1999-2014 before going to Marquette to replace Buzz Williams after his surprising move to Virginia Tech. His results in Milwaukeehave been mixed. The Golden Eagles have won at least 19 games in three of his four seasons and made the NCAA tournament in 2017. but haven’t been quite what theywere under Williams and TomCrean.
So what can we glean from all of this?
The first and most obvious is that over the past 20 years, because of Duke’s standing and Krzyzewski’s gravitas, these assistants, many of whom had never been head coaches previously, were able to instantly land jobs in the sport’s major conferences. Capel’s hiring at Pitt speaks to that fact, though with his prior headcoaching experience, he almost falls into a different category. That there’s some small sense of surprise that he opted to take over a team that went 0-19 in the ACC speaks both to Capel’s pedigree and the school from which he arrives.
Those past examples are informative, but not predictive. If Capel is to excel at Pitt and bring back some measure of luster to a program that has lost so much of it in recent years, it won’t be because he spent time at the same school Brey once did. On the same hand, if he fails, it won’t be because he, Swenson and Henderson share a school on their resumes.