Mike Krzyzewski will make a final run at another national championship with Duke.
The all-time coaching wins leader in Division I men's basketball announced Wednesday that next season will be his last with the Blue Devils, the program he built into one of the sport's bluebloods. The school in Durham, North Carolina, also named former Duke player and associate head coach Jon Scheyer as Krzyzewski's successor starting with the 2022-23 season.
"My family and I view today as a celebration," Krzyzewski, a member of both the Naismith Memorial and College Basketball Hall of Fame said in a statement released Wednesday evening.
Stadium first reported news of the 74-year-old Krzyzewski's final season with Duke, which he has led to five national championships, most recently in 2015. He has 1,170 career wins going back to his time at Army, with 1,097 coming during 41 years with the Blue Devils and their frantic fans who have made playing at famously hostile Cameron Indoor Stadium so difficult.
Now Krzyzewski will make a final lap - "The Last Ride," as the program billed it in a social media post - around the Atlantic Coast Conference and push for another memorable NCAA tournament run before handing off to Scheyer, who turns 34 in August.
"He is clearly ready for this opportunity and has shown it repeatedly throughout his playing career and as a coach on our staff the past eight seasons," Krzyzewski said in the release. "Jon is a rising star in our profession and Duke basketball could not be in better hands in the future."
The school has scheduled a news conference for Krzyzewski on Thursday at Cameron, followed by another conference Friday for Scheyer.
Krzyzewski has led the Blue Devils to 12 Final Four appearances and a record 15 ACC tournament titles, and his teams have spent a record 126 weeks ranked at No. 1 in the AP men's college basketball poll.
Hired at Duke in March 1980, "Coach K" won national championships in 1991, 1992, 2001, 2010 and 2015. He broke Army mentor Bob Knight's career victories record in November 2011.
Krzyzewski has tailored his approach to adapt with the times and his personnel. He won that 2010 title with a senior-laden roster, then secured the 2015 crown after pivoting to more "one-and-done" talent that headed to the NBA after a lone college season.
His image became synonymous both with the elite private university and the sport as a whole. And along the way, he took over the U.S. men's national team - with rosters stocked with NBA All-Stars and featuring names such as LeBroon James and the late Kobe Bryant - and led it to Olympic gold in Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 and Rio de Janiero in 2016.
"What he means to the countless players he has coached, both collegiately and professionally, is simply immeasurable," ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said in a released statement.
Duke missed the NCAA tournament this past season for the first time since 1995, but the Blue Devils welcome one of the nation's top recruiting classes for 2021-22.
Scheyer played for Krzyzewski from 2006-10, with his last season resulting in his mentor's fourth NCAA title. Scheyer joined the Duke staff for the 2013-14 season and rose to his current role after the 2017-18 season.
Scheyer served as interim coach this past season when Krzyzewski was sidelined for a January win against Boston College due to COVID-19 protocols. Scheyer has never been a college head coach.
"Duke University has been a central part of my life for more than a decade, and I could not ask for a better place to continue my career," Scheyer said in the release. "This is absolutely humbling. ... (Krzyzewski) has set a standard that every coach at every level should strive to achieve."
The news came almost two months to the day that another Hall of Famer in the state - North Carolina's Roy Williams - announced his retirement after 33 seasons as a head coach with Kansas and the Tar Heels, Duke's biggest rival. North Carolina also turned to a former player on the bench, elevating Hubert Davis for his first opportunity as a major college head coach.