The college athletics landscape is forever changing with the expansion of NIL, the transfer portal, and media rights deals and Duke legend Mike Krzyzewski is calling for change. College football is constantly evolving with increased access to view games and the expansion of the College Football Playoff.
Krzyzewski wants the same type of attention to be placed on how to further grow college basketball. He spoke about it in an appearance on SiriusXM College Sports Radio on Friday.
“Everybody is thinking about networks and everything. What are we doing about college football? We need them to think about what are we doing for college basketball too. And unless we have a group leading college basketball promoting that, it's not going to happen. It is not going to happen. I mean, the time for change is now. It has been, but it really is now.”
On his weekly SiriusXM show Basketball & Beyond with Coach K, he and Kansas coach Bill Self discussed ideas about how to change the game to further push and grow the sport. Amongst the ideas the two legendary coaches spoke about was adapting the game to resemble the NBA style.
“I think we should play the game like the NBA,” Krzyzewski said. “A 24-second (shot clock), most of the same rules and officiating, probably not defensive three seconds, but four quarters, advance the ball. Because these kids want to play in the NBA, I don’t understand why we’re not playing it. What’s your opinion on the rules of the game?”
Among other ideas, Krzyzewski and Self both agreed that players should have more of an opportunity to spend time with players.
“With the international players coming in too, Bill, they’re accustomed to access to coaching anytime, at any time in the year,” said the former Duke coach
Self agreed, responding, “They’re going to get it from somebody. Regardless of what’s going on with NIL and the perception of a lot of different things out there, kids still want to be coached.
“They still want to get better. They still yearn for the discipline of a routine. … We spend so much time on rules that are very, very difficult to enforce, if at all, and we spend so much time in looking at something is what is fair across the board as opposed to, ‘Hey, if we’re talking about student-athlete welfare, what’s really best for the kids?’”
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