Mike Krzyzewski Saw The Nationals Coming

Mike Krzyzewski is known for his laser focus on his basketball team but he’s also a sports fan in general.

We hear bits and pieces periodically about him observing football and baseball games. He obviously sees it from a different perspective than most of us do and observes coaching and clutch play and things like that in a way that most of us can’t.

So perhaps it’s no great surprise that he caught on to the Nationals before most people did.

Coach K interviewed Washington manager Dave Martinez on his SiriusXM show Basketball And Beyond and spoke to him about his team’s run to the World Series championship.

Martinez spoke about his motto, which is to 1-0 each day, which the Washington Post points out is very similar to Coach K’s “next play” philosophy.

Krzyzewski told Martinez that “I called my wife after watching you and said, ‘This team is kicking the stuffing out of us. They got something. They got something.’ You guys just beat the hell out of the Cubs that weekend. I became a huge fan of your team. Actually, I was recruiting up in D.C. in September, and I’m staying in one of the hotels, and people say, ‘We’re going to get eliminated.’ I said, ‘You’re not going to get eliminated. Your guys are good. Your guys are really good.’”

We assume that Coach K’s language at home is generally gentler than in Cameron but stuffing?

Anyway, we are always interested in hearing his observations on just about anything. His mind is idiosyncratic and makes connections that elude a lot of people. It doesn't much surprise us that he spotted the Nationals rise.