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When Mike Krzyzewski took on the US National Team coaching position, a lot of people were critical. Why would Jerry Colangelo hire a college coach? It didn't seem to make sense.
And after K’s first FIBA competition in 2006, when Greece beat the US 101-95, the criticism intensified.
Some critics sneered that if Coach K couldn’t stop the Greeks from running backdoors, how could Team USA possibly hope to win Olympic Gold?
Those questions didn’t last long.
Coach K never forgot Duke’s loss to Wagner early in his Duke career, and we’re sure he never forgot the loss to Greece.
That was his last loss as the American coach: after that he ran his record to 75-1.
Here’s the loss to Greece. It’s interesting to watch it and to think about how the US team developed under Krzyzewski. By the time he stepped down, people were again talking about the US as being inevitable champions. It really wasn’t that way of course, but people thought it was, and that was huge.
On this team: Joe Johnson, Kirk Hinrich, LeBron James, Antawn Jamison, Shane Battier, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Brad Miller, Elton Brand and Carmelo Anthony.