The boom or bust world of Coach K

CHARLOTTE – Mike Krzyzewski has stealth Twitter and Instagram accounts, and no he’s not telling you what their handles are.

“But if you want to see me walking my dog, it’s really interesting,” the Duke coach deadpanned.

Coach K actually uses the social-media accounts for recruiting purposes, monitoring the players he is evaluating and attempting to sign. It’s just one more part of a world that is wholly different today than when he first began coaching 47 years ago.

Part of the different world is a significant increase in the amount of time devoted to recruiting, especially now that Duke has embraced the one-and-done talent churn.

“A lot more,” the winningest coach in Division I men’s basketball history said. “The guys you’re trying to recruit at that level, you’re recruiting them early and long. The return is for less time than you put in – but that’s OK.”

Players come and go more often. The best of them don’t last more than a season. So the need to restock with large recruiting classes remains constant.

This is the high-risk, high-reward strategy of program management that Krzyzewski has chosen – largely mimicking a tactic John Calipari has employed at Kentucky. When the pieces all fit, it works brilliantly – Duke has the 2015 national championship banner and Kentucky has the 2012 banner in large part because of it. Without Jahlil Okafor and Tyus Jones at Duke and Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist at Kentucky, those Final Four nets are snipped by other teams.

But it doesn’t always work. Sometimes your linchpin freshman gets hurt (Kyrie Irving at Duke in 2010-11, Nerlens Noel at Kentucky in 2012-13). Or sometimes the players just aren’t good enough fast enough.

You could look at both the Blue Devils and Wildcats from last year and see the evidence of one-and-done gone wrong. Or at least not completely right.

Kentucky failed to win the Southeastern Conference regular-season title and failed to get out of the first weekend of the NCAA tournament in part because the nation’s No. 1 prospect according to Rivals.com, Skal Labissiere, sure didn’t play up to his ranking. Duke failed to win any ACC hardware and was housed in the Sweet 16 by Oregon in part because No. 14 recruit Derryck Thornton wasn’t ready to be the team’s only true point guard and No. 16 Chase Jeter wasn’t ready for major minutes in the post.

Before those disappointing outcomes were known, both coaches had commenced reloading for 2016-17 in the same manner. Duke brings the nation’s No. 1 freshman class into the season, while Kentucky’s is No. 2.

This is the cycle both K and Cal have committed to. It is a boom-and-bust cycle, a ride-the-tiger-until-you-fall-off-and-get-eaten approach. The recruiting beast must be fed constantly, as teams are sewn together out of whole cloth on an annual basis.

“It’s completely different every year,” Krzyzewski said. “There’s nothing bad about it – we’re doing OK. You just have to adapt to that.”

But Krzyzewski also knows that the best teams have more than just freshmen talent. The best teams have enough veteran presence to help give the freshmen time to find their way.

“It’s got to be where it’s not just one-year players,” Krzyzewski said.

That 2015 Duke national championship team? Senior guard Quinn Cook was indispensible.

And this 2016-17 Duke team that begins the year ranked No. 1? It got a huge boost when forward Amile Jefferson returned for a fifth year and guard Grayson Allen returned for his junior year. Neither of those things were givens, and certainly a Jefferson injury and fifth season were not part of the overall recruiting blueprint.

Sometimes you get lucky. Some years you wind up a couple of bodies short due to an unwise early entry or an injury, and some years it works the other way.

This year, Duke has the depth to withstand preseason injuries to hugely hyped freshmen Harry Giles and Jayson Tatum, the nation’s No. 2 and No. 3 prospects according to Rivals. (Neither injury is expected to keep the players sidelined for a significant amount of the regular season, though Krzyzewski was non-committal when asked about Giles’ return.)

“This is a good group in that we not only have older players, but older really good players … that can set the example for the younger players,” Krzyzewski said. “That’s the atmosphere you want.

“We have more players than normal. … Right now we have eight guys that at any one time can start.”

And presumably that number doesn’t include Tatum and Giles, both of whom almost certainly will be expected to start when they’re 100-percent healthy and indoctrinated.

With more bodies comes more competition in practice, more full-contact drills and scrimmages, more options for the Duke coaches to play with. And with upperclassmen who can play, Krzyzewski gets more of what he calls “real-time leadership” from a guy like Jefferson. Basically, that amounts to someone who can show the young guys how Duke wants it done in practices and games.

“It’s a great asset to have,” Coach K said. “And you don’t get it unless you have older guys.”

Duke has older guys. And younger guys. It has plenty of guys.

That isn’t always the case the way Mike Krzyzewski maintains his program, but the high-risk, high-reward philosophy is breaking in his favor this year. That’s why the best coach in college basketball has a great chance to hang a sixth championship banner in Cameron Indoor Stadium.