Duke's Mike Krzyzewski maintains mystery of his social media burner accounts – 'He’s too hard to find'

NEW ORLEANS — It looks like Mike Krzyzewski will take at least one mystery about himself into retirement.

So far none of his Duke players have been able to uncover the secret social media aliases that he uses to follow them on Twitter and Instagram.

“I’ve definitely tried,” junior Wendell Moore said.

“He’s too hard to find,” freshman A.J. Griffin added.

“If y’all have any ideas, let me know,” sophomore Jeremy Roach joked.

While Krzyzewski over the years has revealed his love for Beyonce, his passion for Napa Valley Cabernet and his fondness for gardening, he has kept a few personal details private. His social media handles remain a tightly guarded secret on the eve of a Final Four matchup with North Carolina that will either be his last or second-to-last game as Duke’s head coach.

In a 2015 interview with ESPN, Krzyzewski first revealed that while he doesn’t have a formal presence on social media, he does “follow a lot of people” under an alias. He opened up more the following year during a podcast with former player J.J. Redick, explaining that he follows “just about all of our former players, our current players, recruits and some key people.”

“It just keeps me abreast of what’s going on,” Krzyzewski told Redick. “I love, like, seeing the pictures of your family. It keeps me close. I share them with my family. But I don’t want anybody contacting me. I don’t want to have that type of dialogue. I’d rather call you or text you or whatever. I don’t personally want to have followers.”

One of Krzyzewski’s good friends and longtime former assistants insists that even he doesn't know the Duke coach’s social media aliases. Northwestern head coach Chris Collins told Yahoo Sports, “When I get a text from him saying that he saw pictures of my dogs on my wife’s Instagram, I know that he’s lurking somewhere.”

It’s similar for Krzyzewski’s current players who are on the cusp of sending him into retirement with a sixth national title.

They might see him on his phone perusing Twitter with the font size enlarged. Or he might tell them that he saw them on Instagram Live the night before. Or they might get a text from him with a screenshot of their latest tweet or Instagram post.

“If I was posting on Instagram, he’ll screenshot it to me in a text message and say, ‘Great post’ or ‘I like your post’ or something,” Moore said. “Obviously what’s going through our minds is, ‘How did you see that?’”

Moore and Williams have even examined those screenshots to see if Krzyzewski might slip up and accidentally leave behind a clue.

“There was one that I tried to zoom in on every little key thing in the screenshot that I could,” Moore said. “He does a great job of keeping his name out.”

It’s not just Duke players who have done some detective work but come up empty. In 2015, ACC Sports Journal cross referenced the list of followers for some of Duke’s managers and incoming recruits but uncovered nothing definitive.

While Krzyzewski himself may go incognito on social media, his program deftly uses Twitter and Instagram to connect with fans and recruits. Duke men’s basketball has a following of 2.2 million on Twitter and 1.3 million on Instagram.

It might not be a coincidence that the closest thing to bulletin board material provided by either Duke or North Carolina this week was a tweet from one of the Tar Heels.

The lurking presence of Krzyzewski on social media also helps remind his players to make smart choices about what to say or post.

Says Griffin with a smile: “Me and my teammates always joke around and say,'Coach is watching you' whenever we’re on live.”