Coach K to Coach Team USA in 2012 Olympics

Mike Krzyzewski, also known as Coach K, will be back to coach the American basketball team at the 2012 Olympics, which take place in London. USA Basketball announced the news and also announced that Coach K will also lead the United States in next year's world championships, where the Americans are favorite to win. Krzyzewski will become the first head coach to coach the Americans in two different Olympics since Henry Iba did it in 1964, 1968, and 1972. Coach K has said that it was an honor to be selected as head coach again.

In his early years, Krzyzewski was a basketball player under Hall of Fame coach Bob Knight, and picked up very similar coaching traits from Knight. Krzyzewski has said that Knight was a mentor for him. After his basketball career as a player was over, he turned his attention to coaching. Krzyzewski was coach for five seasons at Army, before taking over the head coaching job at Duke University.

Coach K grew to fame during his years as college basketball coach of the Duke Blue Devils. Krzyzewski took a losing program, and turned it into one of the best, in only a matter of a few years. Coach K has coached for Duke for 28 seasons, and will be back this year, for his 29th season. Coach K has led the Blue Devils to three NCAA Championships (1991, 1992, 2001), ten Final Four appearances, and eleven ACC Championships. Krzyzewski also has taken his college team to the NCAA tournament 25 out of his 28 years at Duke, and has won a NCAA-record 71 tournament games.

Krzyzewski led the Americans to their first gold medal in eight years, in last year's Olympics. After winning gold medals in 2000, the Americans only won disappointing bronze medals in 2004. But in the 2008 Olympics, the Americans went undefeated, defeating every team they faced, including Spain in the gold medal match. A lot of the American players on the US team, including Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and others, have said that Coach K was a great coach and would like to see him coach again in the 2012 Olympics.

Krzyzewski has amassed a plateau of accomplishments during his career. As mentioned earlier, he has won the NCAA Tournament three times, and has also been selected as ACC coach of the year on five separate occasions (1984, 1986, 1997, 1999, 2000). Coach K was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame following the 2001 season. Some consider Coach K, the greatest coach in the history of college basketball.