Basketball: Team USA coaches too busy to recruit

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LAS VEGAS -- It’s a recruiter’s dream, but Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim are occupied this week with a greater mission than scouting and schmoozing with the nation’s best high school basketball players.

‘I’m trying to win a gold medal,’ Krzyzewski said today after a three-hour Team USA practice at Valley High. ‘If a recruit doesn’t understand that, that’s too bad.’’

Krzyzewski, the U.S. Olympic team’s head coach, said he will miss the entire week of action involving nearly 900 teams at four tournaments in the Las Vegas area. He said he recruited for three days earlier this month, and assigned his director of basketball operations to inspect the talent here.

‘Sometimes, there’s things you can’t do,’ said Krzyzewski, whose U.S. team is three weeks from the start of the Summer Games in Beijing, where Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and other NBA stars will attempt to improve upon a bronze-medal showing in 2004.

‘Someone asked if I was going to try to get over to the games at night [this week]. No.’

Boeheim, a USA assistant coach, said he will restrict his attendance at the high school games to ‘a couple events.’ With only two open scholarships, Boeheim said he’ll focus on high school juniors and lean on reports from the Syracuse assistants who will be watching.

‘I’ll sneak out and see what I can,’ Boeheim said. ‘People are understanding of what I’m doing here.’

-- Lance Pugmire

Top: Mike Krzyzewski and the team get together at their first training session in June. Photo: Marlene Karas/US Presswire