pacing involved with this thing what does that kind of look like conceptually from a staff is there like a war room a mapping of like who's going where and how this thing what does that kind of look like that you could kind of talk about here

yeah no i appreciate the question we've spent more time than you could imagine the last several years and how to get better at i think we've really the last two years in particular is the reason uh you know the coaches on staff are terrific in terms of the guys that have been next to me but from an organizational standpoint that's why i went out and hired evan brad's last year that's part of the reason i hired kj conklin this offseason just to help us be organized and tighter with what we're doing, where the consistency is there from a player development standpoint.

And I think, you know, a lot of times at Duke, right, you're going to associate the top picks in the draft.

The one and dones is our blueprint for success.

when I think our blueprint is much more than that.

You know, I think of, you know, multiple-year guys in Tyrese Proctor, you know, Malik Brown, Isaiah Evans.

You can go down the list.

Like we just got to do what we got to do.

Why is that so important for you? Because as you said, everyone wants to give you your flowers when you win.

Well, I mean...

You know how this thing can go.

It's a roller coaster ride, right? And wins you feel on top of the world and losses you feel like the world is ending.

And, you know, I mean, look, I don't think many programs go to Fog Allen Fieldhouse thinking they're supposed to win.

And I think we're one of the few.

I would say the same thing if they were coming here.

Is this one of the most important weeks of practice before you guys get the season underway?

[laughs] Uh, just remind us, did that involve soul-searching? Was it that, uh, deep of a question for you? And what's the best way to describe your ongoing commitment to Duke, however far into the future?

Well, I think it's, uh, flattering anytime there can be potential interest, and it can either make you, uh, look elsewhere, or it can make you double down on where you're at and the commitment that you have.

And for me, uh, I'm right where I'm supposed to be.

I'm committed to Duke for a long time.

We have a lot of unfinished business, uh, that, that we're gonna accomplish here, and, uh, it's a blessing to be at Duke.

Yeah

... and you don't feel that way at the end of the season.

You, you just don't.

Mm-hmm

... y- you gotta own it when it doesn't go your way either.

And I think it's important to show up.

I think it's important to take responsibility.

And the same time, uh, there, there's not anything to apologize for when you have the seasons we've had.

Al- but although for me, it's not gonna be enough until we take that final step.

Yeah

... and, and what he's done with the Rams.

Have you already had to have some tough, like, playing time conversations with some of these guys?

You know, it's funny because, you know, the depth obviously is – I agree.

I think we have really good depth, and it's – in the summer I think you're trying to – sit back and say, how are we going to make this work and how are we going to figure this out? Right now, we have a few guys banged up in the preseason.

We even had our full team together one time.

Caleb Foster is dealing with an ankle thing right now, and he's out.

Cam Williams was just sick and missed a week.

Drew Czarnowski still isn't back yet.

talking uh with john shire 99.9 the fan uh going back to 20 i think you were here in 2022 you were here with jeremy roach and jacob grandison uh if we if we time traveled back and grabbed you when you were doing these interviews and you gave yourself some advice what do you think you would tell 2022 version of you going into this this ride over the last four years i just say hang tough

Take us through kind of the thought process of essentially creating that position and why he was the right fit.

Yeah.

I think it's important to have people around you that are smarter than you.

[laughs] And, you know, in, in, we call him AP, in AP's case, his combination of having a, a data science background, uh, in addition to, um, a basketball background, and those two things don't come to go, those two things don't go together all the time.

And so he's really helped us in all different facets, anything touching basketball.

Uh, he's made us better in really ensuring that our process, in terms of making decisions, continu- continues to get stronger, and that there's data behind it.

And it's too important, and he's done a great job with it.

I just can't imagine.

Are there, have you already begun to have maybe some difficult conversations with guys? There there's, there's no one on this roster who wasn't, you know, as you described a 30 plus minute per game guy a year ago, other than, you know, maybe some of the guys who are already at Duke and, How do you have those conversations with guys about maybe this year isn't going to be your

year? Jason, I think it's important that I don't get too far ahead and talk about things that I do or don't know.

I am very transparent in the fact of where we're at as a team and the fact that there's not clearly five guys that are just going to finish a game or head and shoulders above everybody else.

I think there's less separation.

So with less separation, you know, that can be a good thing or it can be not a good thing.

And so the – end of the day, the relationships we have, those conversations are so important, you know, so I don't shy away from the fact that hard decisions have to be made.

I don't shy away from the fact that not everybody's going to get what they want, especially immediately.

But what settled you on the programs that you do have on the schedule? And is there a chance for – I know we have the Champions Classic, but is there a chance for preseason games like Kansas or Tennessee – to become home and homes in the regular season in the future?

How do you embrace and celebrate all your successes, even if a season doesn't end with a national championship?

You know, that's something I have a hard time doing, you know, because...

All right, if you told me two years ago we're going to have the most wins in college basketball the next two years, all right, that sounds good.

But at the same time, you know, for me, I always – look, even if we won the whole thing this past year, I'm not sure I'd be really happy in the offseason.

You just – you have to – I think as a competitor and as a coach, you're always wired to do the next thing as well as you possibly can.

And so, obviously, for me, I want nothing more – then for our fans, for our players, most importantly, our entire community to see us come down the nets in March.

That's what's the goal.

Could this be the deepest team that John Shire has had as a head coach at Duke?

Like from a mindset standpoint and when you when you took over for that, for this enormous role.

You know what? I think that I'm a history guy.

You know, I've always loved history.

I was a history major at Duke.

And I was as I knew that this was an opportunity and going through the process, I started looking up successions.

Any any examples I could find in the world of business, sport.

And the more that I looked it up, the more.

How do you go about separating those things?

And, and, and, and maybe do s- do you do self-scouting? How do you get to that, that next level or over the hump?

Always do s- self-scouting.

Always.

You know, I...

It's, it's, it's difficult 'cause on one end, all right, it's the first year Duke basketball has won 70 games in back, in, in two seasons.

Like the 35 wins two seasons in a row, that's never happened before.

ACC champs.

So you're not.

How do you try to convey to your players not to let a singular result define the entire season?

Well, I'm not shying away from the fact that there's incredible heartbreak and disappointment when you lose the way we did on Sunday.

I mean, we've lost two unimaginable ways the last two seasons.

At the same time, we've been in back-to-back-to-back Elite Eights for the first time in 30-something years.

We've had really good success in the tournament.

It just hasn't ended with a win the way that we want.

And, you know, it would be one thing, and the scarier thing is if we're not close, the thing is we're knocking the door.

How do you try to convey to your players not to let a singular result define the entire season?

The, the thing with this, you, you can't say on Sunday

Sunday... that he's ready to go on Friday because we're, we're being cautious with his rest.

You know, this weekend we start to, start to ramp him up with, uh, some of his treatments and some of the things he's doing.

He's not doing anything on the court yet.

And then we'll make the decision as we get, you know, uh, a, a few days from now.

Not gonna risk, you know, you're in one and done territory, but you're also not gonna risk anything of, you know, wanting setbacks either.

So we'll, we'll have to see how this progresses.

I mean, let's talk about those guys and what you think you need to see from these guys going forward to get to where you want.

What, if anything, has changed in your approach to coaching late-game execution?

Well, one, I think it's important.

To understand, I don't care how good somebody is, you know, I'm fortunate, as you know, Josh, we've coached some special guys, especially the last two years with national player of the year type guys.

Right.

And they're still they're still in situations they've never been in before.

So not that we didn't rehearse last year.

I want to double down on how you rehearse those situations and practice, not just not just doing them, but also.

As, again, we learned in our exclusive conversation from earlier in the show, here's how that sounded.

You won the rebounding battle, you kept them from scoring in the paint, and you have two big guys that I thought played fantastic in both Boozer and Patton Gongva.

Well, you know, um, I thought it was the key to the game, probably, right? And, you know, y- you're playing a game where when you look at their stats and all that, it's not like they, they have a lot of flaws.

And so you can, you can very easily try to adjust to what, you know, may or may not work against them, or you can be true to who you are and play to our strengths.

That's the same thing for us, winning the rebounding battle is important, you know, the points in the paint and how we do that.

And I thought we did a great job of, uh...

Like, Nick Mania, in that first half, you know, he ends up with nine rebounds.

What he did was huge.

Yeah

Granted you were with the program prior to that, but now as the head coach, like, how different is it really in trying to get guys in?

It's a lot different.

Um, y- you're just dealing with...

When I was recruited, right, it was about the, the process, it was about, you know, four years.

Um, did you have a chance to play right away? Of course you did, but, you know, it really...

The one-and-done thing started more after my time.

Now, uh, it's about immediate impact and opportunity, and, uh, that's really more a one-year timeline, and then s- in some cases maybe a two-year timeline.

What was it like the first time you watched the Houston tape?

I don't know if you did research or talked to people who were the ones following the legend, as opposed to following the person following the legend.

Well, you know what, Dan, I, I did more research on successions than, uh, think you could imagine, you know, especially in sport, right? Uh, but even in business, uh, and you, you, I tried to find connections about, you know, really why, you know, others weren't as successful and what went wrong, and...

Because in most cases, it wasn't about what went right, you know? (laughs) It's, it's been, it's been a very difficult, and, uh, I think the, the, the first and most important thing I found was to be really connected with, you know, the, the former coach or the, the, the transition.

And for me, you know, the fact that Coach K and I are still as close as could be, and the, the, the succession, me and him were so connected about what had to change and what had to improve and what I had to do.

But then, obviously, you're not gonna win if you try to be somebody else.

And so I, I had to come to terms very quickly with, I'm not Coach K.

Not gonna try to be him, I'm not gonna try to coach like him.

Ah.

You know, like as a player and a coach, how does every single round, like does it amp up the intensity and how do you find a way to keep your team kind of focused and down and not make too big of a deal of the whole situation?

I, I think for me, AJ, the biggest thing for our guys, you know, fact is we play five freshmen, you know, in our rotation.

And all five of them in high school, they could have probably played at 50%, 60% and still been by far the best player.

And so from day one for me, it's been about setting an expectation of understanding, uh, what the standard is, but then also preparing to be at your best when your best is required.

And that's what the tournament is all about.

It's not best out of five, it's not best out of seven.

You get one game.

Does that worry you at all going into this Houston matchup? And what are the, what are the biggest, uh, I guess challenges facing this Houston team?

I don't know if you did research or talked to people who were the ones following the legend, as opposed to following the person following the legend.

Well, you know what, Dan? I, I did more research on successions than, uh, I think you could imagine.

You know, especially in sport, right? Uh, but even in business, uh, and y- y- I tried to find connections about, you know, really why-...

you know, others weren't as successful and what went wrong, and...

Because e- in most cases, it wasn't about what went right, you know? (laughs) It's, it's been, it's been very difficult, and I think the, the, the first and most important thing I've found was to be really connected with, you know, the, the former coach or the, the, the transition.

And for me, you know, the fact that Coach K and I are still as close as could be, and the, the, the succession, me and him were so connected about what had to change and what had to improve and what I had to do.

But then, obviously, you're not gonna win if you try to be somebody else.

Uh-huh.

I don't know if you did research or talked to people who were the ones following the legend, as opposed to following the person following the legend.

Well, you know what, Dan, I, I did more research on successions than, uh, think you could imagine.

You know, especially in sport, right? Uh, but even in business, uh, and y- y- I tried to find connections about, you know, really why, you know, others weren't as successful and what went wrong, and...

Because in most cases it wasn't about what went right, you know? It's, it's been, it's been very difficult and I think the, the, the first and most important thing I found was to be really connected with, you know, the, the former coach, or the, the, the transition.

And for me, you know, the fact that Coach K and I are still as close as could be, and the, the, the succession, me and him were so connected about what had to change and what had to improve and what I had to do.

But then, obviously you're not gonna win if you try to be somebody else.

And so I, I had, uh, come to terms very quickly with, I'm not Coach K, I'm not gonna try to be him, I'm not gonna try to coach like him.

Ah.