Coach K

The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski

By: Ian O'Connor

Narrated by: Kiff Vandenheuvel

The definitive biography of college basketball’s all-time winningest coach, Mike Krzyzewski

Mike Krzyzewski, known worldwide as “Coach K,” is a five-time national champion at Duke, the NCAA's all-time leader in victories with nearly 1,200, and the first man to lead Team USA to three Olympic basketball gold medals. Through unprecedented access to Krzyzewski’s best friends, closest advisers, fiercest adversaries, and generations of his players and assistants, three-time New York Times bestselling author Ian O’Connor takes you behind the Blue Devil curtain with a penetrating examination of the great, but flawed leader as he closes out his iconic career.

Krzyzewski built a staggering basketball empire that has endured for more than four decades, placing him among the all-time titans of American sport, and yet there has never been a defining portrait of the coach and his program. Until now. O’Connor uses scores of interviews with those who know Krzyzewski best to deliver previously untold stories about the relationships that define the venerable Coach K, including the one with his volcanic mentor, Bob Knight, that died a premature death. Krzyzewski was always driven by an inner rage fueled by his tough Chicago upbringing, and by the blue-collar Polish-American parents who raised him to fight for a better life. As the retiring Coach K makes his final stand, vying for one more ring during the 2021-2022 season before saying goodbye at age 75, O’Connor shows you sides of the man and his methods that will surprise even the most dedicated Duke fan.

©2022 Ian O'Connor (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

Great book!

Whether you’re a Duke fan of just a sports fan in general, this book will bring back memories. Listened to it in one day and left me wanting to hear more. Only criticism would be that in a book about basketball, the narrator should pronounce names correct. Jim Boeheim is a well known enough name but I was left trying to figure out who he was talking about at first. Bo-heme??? Amika Okafur, Amare Stoudemire, they’re all common enough basketball names that they shouldn’t be mispronounced. Other than that, it was fantastic.

The Good and Bad of Coach K

A very good historical detail behind the Coach K career. The detail gives the good and bad of Coach K, which is welcomed. This a great listen for any ACC, College Basketball, and/or obviously Duke fans.

Overall good with one exception

Wonderful and balanced overview of Mike Krzyzewski’s career. Unfortunately the reader only got Coach K name right while mispronouncing most of the other names cited.

Coach K, The good,bad and ugly

No one is perfect and the book shines a light on coach K’s imperfections as well as is exemplary life off the court. However the detailed behind the scenes game,practice and basketball stories made it a ten.

Audible listeners: Be prepared to hear the Syracuse coach and the Duke coach in waiting have their names butchered as well as Oregon

Incredible detail, awesome chronology for basketball junkies, one of the best

Only issue was the narrator mis pronounced several names, but that can easily be overlooked

Narrator Falls Short

Dude misprounces at least a dozen names. just a little research to get those names right would have made this book much more enjoyable.

Excellent Book,Phenomenal Narrator MINUS one thing

The book is incredible, well researched, very entertaining.

The narrator is just as good. Great voice, flow, etc. Would love for him to narrate every book on audible BUT the one exception is the numerous missed pronunciation of countless names. At first I laughed but it kept happening, over and over and for some reason it seemed like the flubs were on names he said the most.

Dennard
Boeheim
Scheyer
Tyus

Etc etc.

Someone absolutely should’ve caught these errors. If fixed it would be a flawless performance.

Not a Duke or K fan but good story:

I’m not a Duke fan or coach K fan, but I am a basketball fan. I enjoyed the story, but I wish these narrators would learn the correct pronunciation of names before narrating books, it’s frustrating to listen over and over to the mispronounced names of people and places.

Great writing and narration…

But it’s more of a tribute than a biography. A more fitting title would be, The Rise and Reign of Saint Mike.

Thank you Coach K

As a fan of the Duke Basketball program for the past 20 or so years, I found the story of Coach Ks rise to be outstanding. Ian does a good job capturing the emotion around all of the parts of Krzyzewski's life. I learned a lot, nothing more sensational than the story behind the Black uniforms that every fan loves. The one excerpt I found that appears to have caused a stir us that of Amaker being the University's choice to replace K. I found it odd that the University wouldn't consult with K instead of forming a committee to choose a replacement. It seems like an overreach by people who were looking to get credit for hiring the new coach instead of doing what was best for the program. Duke Basketball is its own entity. Thank you Ian. for bringing us stories that most of us didn't have the privilege of hearing before.

As for the reader, I think someone should have gone over the appropriate pronunciation of the names of people in the book. It was odd hearing mispronounced names that are very familiar to everyday fans.