Duke basketball’s Coach K makes his Cameron return — as a fan, to help honor Mike Brey

The day was surely going to come, eventually. Mike Krzyzewski couldn’t stay away forever. Not from Duke basketball. And not from Cameron Indoor Stadium.

That day turned out to be a random Tuesday night in February, for a narrow 68-64 win over a 10-15 team with two ACC wins of all opponents, because Mike Brey’s final return provoked his mentor’s first return. And for the first time in a long time, Bucky Waters wasn’t the only former Duke coach in Cameron.

As he promised before his final season, Krzyzewski had remained in the shadows since Jon Scheyer took over. Aside from the odd non-sporting public appearance — awards and keys to the city and the like — the singular figure who had loomed over Duke basketball for 40 years essentially disappeared into his new life.

But with Brey making one last visit to Cameron, where he had spent eight years working for Krzyzewski in the ‘90s, Krzyzewski broke his self-imposed exile and returned in full public view, at the opposite corner of the court from the bench he once roamed, a day after his 76th birthday.

“It’s big time to have him here,” said Duke guard Jeremy Roach, one of two Krzyzewski recruits left on the team. “Obviously he’s the guy that brought me here, gave me the opportunity to play here. He shows mad love to me.”

Krzyzewski and his wife Mickie sat along the baseline where Duke enters and exits, wearing the same outfit of blue Duke pullover and black pants that he wore to coach most of his final season. Once he and Mickie took their seats, a steady procession of well-wishers paid their respects.

First Brey, who announced last month this would be his final season at Notre Dame after more than two decades. Then Scheyer, his successor, following his players onto the court but stopping to hug both Krzyzewskis. And finally, veteran referee Ted Valentine, who earlier had distributed Valentine’s Day candies to the scorer’s table. Even on February 14, Teddy V can’t outshine Coach K, not in this building.

Still, the respect being paid wasn’t really to Krzyzewski. It was going the other direction. His first appearance at a Duke game at Cameron since that awkward night last March when North Carolina ruined the party was his true tribute to Brey, personally delivered.

The two had met earlier Tuesday at Cameron, when Krzyzewski — at this point, a certified expert on farewell gifts — gave Brey an engraved magnum of wine to celebrate his career. But Krzyzewski’s mere presence Tuesday night was an honor of a deeper nature, the ultimate show of respect.

“It was a little weird, I must say, seeing him sit on the baseline,” Brey said. “And he kind of had his legs out like he was lounging. That was the calmest he’s ever been in the place.”

After all, he had held true to his intentions when he retired, not to loom over Scheyer or the program but remain in the background, neither seen nor heard (except on his Sirius XM show). Neither Phil Knight nor a trip to Madison Square Garden — revered, even by a native Chicagoan, since his days at Army — could pry him from his self-imposed basketball exile. It was, Scheyer said, an ongoing conversation.

“I think the bigger problem here was, where was he going to sit? I think that’s the toughest part,” Scheyer said. “It’s hard for him to have privacy. I think he was just, in his mind, trying to be respectful of what we have going on. The thing for me is, I want him to be here whenever he wants to be here. He’s got his own life too and has a lot going on, but he’s always going to be Duke, he’s still at Duke, so for me that meant a lot. That meant a lot to me having him here. We’ll see if we can get him back.”

But if Scheyer needed time and space to steer the program in his own image, Brey had earned this much from his former coach. He remains the most robust limb of Krzyzewski’s coaching tree, although Jeff Capel may have turned a corner at Pittsburgh, and Scheyer is certainly in a position to someday top the list.

Brey, though, endured not only great success — six Final Fours in eight seasons and two national titles — but the most difficult season of Krzyzewski’s career, when his back and his spirit gave out and he stepped aside in 1995, reevaluating every aspect of his program and emerging from the ashes to win three more national titles. Those bonds were strong enough, long before Brey went to Delaware and Notre Dame and became a peer in the ACC – an elder statesman, even, by the time Krzyzewski retired.

And now Brey follows him into that void, 13 years younger at 63, still interested in potentially coaching again, although television will certainly beckon.

“Darned if he didn’t come to work the officials on the baseline, huh?” Brey said. “Some things never change. Tell him I said that. It was good to see him, good to see Mickie. At shootaround today, I’m walking around, I’ve hung out in every nook and cranny in this building. My son, my daughter was born at Duke Hospital, a lot of great memories. But I did tell Mike, I said Mike, Mickie, we have a little more time to drink some good wine now.”

Notre Dame, like North Carolina last spring, paid its own tribute by refusing to quietly acquiesce. The Irish, who had beaten only fellow also-rans Georgia Tech and Louisville in ACC play, were within one before Mark Mitchell’s corner 3-pointer with 10.8 seconds to go. Krzyzewski, some 106 feet away, never showed even a hint of emotion.

At the last timeout of the first half, Krzyzewski was formally introduced to the crowd like one of the former Duke players who return for games. He stood, then pulled Mickie to her feet to join him. He waved. He bowed toward the students, as they had so often bowed toward him.

Then the applause faded and Krzyzewski sat back down as the band blared in his ears and the cheerleaders ran past and the game and Duke’s season carried on as it had without him, rushing back in to fill the space around him until he was just another fan in very good seats.

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