The Laws Of Patriotism Will Require You To Root For Coach K In 2012

So, we learned yesterday, Mike Krzyzewski is expected to supplement his day job with a Team USA summer gig for the next three years. "All leads point to Coach K coming back," Jerry Colangelo said. And isn't that joyous!

Maybe not in Durham, where students have been slightly restless in the three years since Krzyzewski first donned red, white and blue. The last two years' graduates became the second and third since 1985 not to see a Final Four team, and the Class of 2009 watched Tyler Hansbrough victoriously spaz around Cameron Indoor Stadium four seasons straight. My graduating class seems fated to complete the trifecta of dry years. Boo hoo, right? Not even Krzyzewski has pity for the poor souls floating somewhere in a certain tent village's detritus. "If somebody doesn't go to the Final Four during their four years at Duke," he said after the Olympics last summer, "then that's just too damn bad."

Still, we students want a free excuse to visit Indianapolis, and while the Crazies who bow to Krzyzewski when he walks onto the court named after him will dip their heads no matter what, not everyone I know is so reverential. One of my friends was "apocalyptic" Krzyzewski is keeping the Olympic job. Another called the decision "a joke," and yet another asked me to describe Coach K as a "rapscallion." (There!)

The most tepid response, though, came from the person I thought would be the most apoplectic. I say it's fine, he told me. Oh. Well then. But if we're not immediately and senselessly speculating, what are we to do? Maybe, he said, we can dream of an open scrimmage between Team USA and Duke in Cameron. For almost everyone, after all, there's nothing more patriotic than pulling for the Stars and Stripes while taunting the Crazies. I'll be the rapscallion and just hope for a tie.

Sources: Coach K to stay with U.S. for 4 more years [ESPN] Coach K back with USA [Celtics Blog]