Gaudet Weathers Duke Storm
There have been rare sightings lately of Mike Krzyzewski around the Duke University campus. For the rest of the basketball season, however, no one will be more visible than the man who is taking his place.
Pete Gaudet has gone from trusted and anonymous assistant to the man who has to answer question after question about his boss and the struggling Blue Devils.
To say Duke is struggling is as unfair as it is to say Gaudet faces a daunting challenge in replacing Krzyzewski even if it is only for the rest of the 1994-95 season.
Since Krzyzewski left the team Jan. 6 to recuperate from September back surgery, the Blue Devils have managed to win just one of eight games and that victory was the only non-Atlantic Coast Conference game, at Notre Dame. The last two losses were by two points to top-five teams - 76-74 at Maryland and 102-100 in double overtime to North Carolina.
There have been four straight losses at Cameron Indoor Stadium, something that hasn’t happened since 1976-77, the ancient days of Duke history before Krzyzewski arrived and turned the program into a Final Four regular and repeat national champion.
Gaudet, a restricted earnings coach with a salary limit from that position of $16,000, still teaches at Duke while he tries to figure out how to get a young team to perform to the level that has come to be expected around here.
“We’re playing against the best teams in the country and we’re not asking them to give in an inch,” Gaudet said.
The 52-year-old Gaudet was an assistant to Krzyzewski at Army from 1975-80 and took over the program there when Krzyzewski left for Tobacco Road to become Coach K.
“The first time I followed a coach,” he said. “The second time I followed a legend.”
No one around Duke is blaming Gaudet for the worst ACC start in school history. He gets a loud cheer when he is introduced. The media, who used to turn to him for information and background, have been almost genteel with him as he tries to explain what is going on in a program that won the most games in Division I over the past 10 years (287) while appearing in seven Final Fours (more than any conference) and winning it all in 1991 and 1992, the first repeat champion since UCLA ended its seven-year run in 1973.
If Krzyzewski were on the Blue Devils’ bench, it’s possible the conference losing streak wouldn’t be at eight games entering the weekend. Then again, the team would still be young on the perimeter (three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior) and a step slower on the defensive end than usual.
“When you’re getting a team ready you go with your strengths and try to help your weaknesses,” Gaudet said. “I’m proud of how these kids have stayed in there. There’s been no finger-pointing. They have given all you ask for and that’s the most you can expect from college basketball players.”
“It has really been difficult for all of us without Coach K,” senior forward Erik Meek said. “We all want coach Gaudet to succeed. He’s the one who worked with the big guys in the program. I owe him an awful lot.”
Gaudet feels good about the players who are his for nine more regular-season games, the ACC tournament and maybe, just maybe, some postseason play.
“Obviously, there has been some adversity and people have kept quite a bit of pressure on us, but they have had an unbelievable attitude,” Gaudet said. “Now we have to pack the bags and get ready for the next game.”
Spoken like a true head coach.