Following the Badgers’ loss to the Blue Devils in the national title game Monday, Ryan said “we don’t do a rent-a-player,” and the soundbite irked some people. He was referring to coaches recruiting players they know will likely only stay for one year before heading to the NBA.
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“Number one, I love Bo, and I know as a coach that you’re the first guy up there (when) you lose," Krzyzewski said on The Herd with Colin Cowherd on Wednesday. “Look, I’ve lost national championship games and I’ve been the loser and it’s not easy. Sometimes things can be — they can take one line or a couple lines out without hearing the whole context of what you’re talking about. The line ‘rent-a-player’ is not a good line, because we use ‘one-and-done.’ It could mean that you’re doing something illegal with rent. I think there’s a better choice of words for that.
“But to say, ‘hey, we don’t do the one-and-done in our program,’ hey, that’s your right. But also understand that everybody is doing it a little bit differently. Guys are accepting transfers more. A lot of guys are going after fifth-year transfers. There’s more than one way to run a business.”
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In addition to talking on Cowherd’s show, Coach K spoke with CBS This Morning on Tuesday and provided a similar response.
“Duke doesn’t rent a player,” he said. “We have one of the great schools in the world, and when we recruit a young man, we recruit a young man because of three things: One, he has the academic potential to do well at Duke; two, he has the talent to do well; and three, he has great character. All the guys on my team fit that description 100 percent.”
