A student reporter at Duke University said Mike Krzyzewski, the school’s legendary men’s basketball coach, has apologized for his response to a question during a press conference after Saturday’s 70-65 defeat at Louisville.
Duke (5-5, 3-3 ACC) had reportedly missed several shots in the final moments and picked up its third consecutive loss, putting the Blue Devils in danger of missing the NCAA tournament for the first time in more than 25 years.
After the game, Jake Piazza, a reporter for the student-run Duke Chronicle, asked Coach K about “the next step forward as a team.”
Krzyzewski’s answer sparked criticism on social media for being too harsh.
“Why don’t we just evaluate this game? You know, I’m not into what our next step forward is right now. We just finished a hard-fought game. I don’t know if… What’s your major?” Krzyzewski said. “What’s your major at Duke? What’s your hardest class?”
“Econ,” Piazza replied.
“Okay. So, say you just had the toughest Econ test in the world, and when you walked out, somebody asked you, ‘What’s your next step’ You see what I mean? You have some empathy and… Just give us time to evaluate this game and then we’ll figure out – just like what we always try to do – what the next step will be. The next step, obviously, is to prepare for Georgia Tech. Now how we prepare for them, that’s what we have to figure out,” Krzyzewski said.
This was not exactly how I expected my first postgame question to Coach K to go. https://t.co/a7sU1UE46a
— Jake Piazza (@jake_piazza) January 24, 2021
Piazza later said he was “slightly embarrassed after being roasted in a room full of my fellow reporters” but had no idea the exchange was going viral on social media. He proceeded to write his postgame article then went out for pizza with a colleague who had joined him on the nine-hour road trip, “oblivious to the Twitter chatter surrounding the encounter.”
When Piazza became aware of the brouhaha that had ensued, he said he could have “cowered in the shadows until a Twitter troll inevitably tracked me down and presented me to the world.” But instead, he opted to “quote one of the multiple tweets that were going viral and show that I thought my question was good in the moment and I still do now.”
As Piazza wrote in a column for the Duke Chronicle:
Coming up with the tweet was the fun part considering I didn’t even know what emotion was running through my body. I couldn’t have told you if I was upset at Coach K for roasting me, excited to see myself going viral or nervous that thousands of people were about to flood my Twitter mentions.
Ultimately, I settled on saying the only thing that I was sure of: This was not exactly how I expected my first postgame question to Coach K to go.
It was entertaining to follow the tweet on our long drive back to Durham, but once I got back to my apartment building, the weekend had another surprise in store for me.
My phone rang and Coach K was on the other end of the line.
Our call was short, but the sincerity in his apology was genuine. And in the end, I appreciated the call.
What I will remember most from this weekend, however, is the support from all the journalists (both sports and non-sports) who reached out or replied on Twitter, and I can’t thank everyone enough for that. As a young journalist figuring the industry out, it was a tremendous confidence-booster to see so many other people in the field encouraging me to keep asking questions, and I fully plan on doing so.
Right after I finish studying for my Econ test.