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Coach K lashes out at student reporter after Duke's 3rd straight loss

Liz Roscher
Staff writer
·4 min read

Things are not going well for the Duke men’s basketball team right now. They’re 5-5 and dropped their third straight game on Saturday night with a 70-65 loss to Louisville.

You’d expect coach Mike Krzyzewski, one of the most respected coaches in the game, to give well-practiced answers to questions during his postgame news conference. He’s been doing this for more than 40 years, so he obviously knows how to give diplomatic but respectful answers after a tough loss.

Not on Saturday night, though. A student named Jake Piazza, who writes for the Duke Chronicle, asked Coach K what’s next for the team after three straight losses. Coach K didn’t like the question and immediately let Piazza know it.

Coach K lashes out at student reporter

Instead of answering Piazza’s question, Coach K decided to belittle him for being a student. He pointedly asked Piazza what his hardest class is, and then used that as an excuse not to answer the question.

It was an outsized and surprising response. Piazza’s question was reasonable and necessary, and one that Coach K has literally been asked probably a thousand times. Duke is a program with a history of success under Coach K, and this 5-5 start is uncharacteristic. Every fan wants to know what Coach K is going to do now and how he’s going to fix the team’s issues.

But Coach K wasn’t in the mood to tolerate normal questions on Saturday night, or at least a normal question from a student reporter. For whatever reason, he decided that Piazza didn’t deserve an answer to his question, and didn’t deserve to be treated with the same respect as other reporters.

Criticism flies at Coach K for behavior toward student reporter

When the video of Coach K’s pissy answer appeared on Twitter, people came to Piazza’s defense while pointing out how “classless” and unnecessary Coach K’s response was.

Coach K has yet to respond to the criticism. Thankfully, it doesn’t look like the ordeal has put off Piazza, even though it was apparently the first question he ever asked Coach K during a postgame news conference.

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