Duke Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski will coach his final season with the Blue Devils in 2021-22, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The person said former Duke player and associate head coach Jon Scheyer would then take over as Krzyzewski’s successor for the 2022-23 season.
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The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the school hasn’t commented publicly on the decision. An announcement is expected later Wednesday.
Stadium first reported news of Krzyzewski’s final season with Duke, which he has led to five national championships, most recently in 2015. With 1,170 victories, he is the winningest coach in men’s college basketball history, with 1,097 of them coming during his 41 years with the Blue Devils.
BREAKING: Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has decided to retire after this coming season, multiple sources told @stadium. Official announcement expected soon.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) June 2, 2021
The leading candidate to replace K is assistant and former Duke player Jon Scheyer.
As @GoodmanHoops is reporting, Mike Krzyzewski plans to retire after the 2021-2022 season. Krzyzewski is finalizing a search process with university officials to name Duke's associate head coach Jon Scheyer as the coach-in-waiting, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 2, 2021
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 the coming season.
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 following the 2017-18 season.
Scheyer served as interim coach last year for Duke when Krzyzewski was sidelined for a January win against Boston College due to COVID-19 protocols. Scheyer has never been a college head coach.
The news comes 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. UNC also turned to a former player on the bench, elevating Hubert Davis to take over in his first time as a major college head coach.
Since taking over the Duke program before the 1980-81 season, Krzyzewski, who is widely known as “Coach K,” has led Duke to five NCAA championships and 12 Final Four appearances. He’s a three-time recipient of the Naismith College Coach of the Year Award and has a career record of 1097-302. He led the Blue Devils to 24 straight NCAA Tournament appearances before the team missed the tournament this past season.
Krzyzewski has been a member of 21 Team USA coaching staffs and is the only men’s coach to have ever won gold at the Olympics and the FIBA World Cup while possessing an NCAA Championship.