Sources: Frustrated Mike Krzyzewski barred Duke players from locker room
A frustrated Mike Krzyzewski held a team meeting at his house this week where the Duke head coach told players they were barred from the locker room, sources confirmed to FOX Sports on Thursday.
The news was first reported by ESPN. Krzyzewski has “employed this tactic multiple times” in the past, according to the report, which also said that Krzyzewski told players not to wear any Duke apparel.
Associate head coach Jeff Capel, who is filling in while Krzyzewski is on a leave of absence to recover from back surgery, commented on the incident on WRAL radio on Thursday.
"It’s pretty disappointing when stuff that happens within a locker room gets out like that," Capel said. "The one thing I will tell you is that when I was a head coach, and I’m pretty sure any head coach at any point, different points during the season, have done things that they think will motivate their team, and we are certainly no different. But I’m not going to discuss stuff that goes on inside our locker room."
Capel also relayed a story from his playing days when Krzyzewski did something similar.
"I remember when I was a freshman ... we were getting ready to play Florida State and we had to come back," Capel said. "He kicked us out of practice earlier in the day, he got upset with us, and we had to come back. … I walked back in the locker room, and the carpet was up, all the pictures, all the chairs. It was like nothing, it was blank. No Duke apparel in the lockers, and we actually had to go shirts and skins."
Krzyzewski was apparently reacting to a string of poor play that has sent the struggling Blue Devils sliding down the ACC standings. Duke is just 2-3 since Krzyzewski left. Two of those losses came against top-15 teams on the road, but the most recent was an 84-82 home loss on Monday to an NC State team that was just 2-5 in ACC play entering the game. The Wolfpack hadn’t defeated Duke in Durham since 1995.
That dropped the 17th-ranked Blue Devils to 3-4 in conference and 15-5 overall. Their next game is Saturday at Wake Forest.
Ranked as the preseason No. 1, the Blue Devils, as usual, figured to be in the national championship picture this season, but the team has struggled on the court while also dealing with a suspension to Grayson Allen after his latest tripping incident.
