Mike Krzyzewski book says Duke wanted Tommy Amaker, he wanted Jon Scheyer

Officials at Duke wanted to hire former Blue Devil star Tommy Amaker to replace Mike Krzyzewski after he retires this year, but the coach wanted current associate head coach Jon Scheyer to take the job, according to a new book by author Ian O'Connor due out next week.

The book, «Coach K: The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski,» chronicles the fabled career of the Duke men's basketball coach, who is retiring after 42 seasons and five NCAA national championships. He announced that this would be his last season on June 2, 2021 — with Scheyer named his successor the same day.

Both Scheyer and Amaker played for Krzyzewski — Amaker from 1982-87 and Scheyer from 2006-2010. Amaker was an assistant coach at Duke for nine seasons, but left for a head coaching job at Seton Hall in 1997 at age 31. He went on to coach at Michigan, and has been the head coach at Harvard since 2007. Scheyer has been an assistant coach at Duke since 2013 and was promoted to associate head coach after the 2018 season.

In the book, O'Connor writes Krzyzewski asked Scheyer about the possibility of following him the day he told his assistant coaches of his decision to retire. Scheyer said he would like to have the job. Duke administrators, including deputy director of athletics Jon Jackson, and three others (including incoming athletics director Nina King) ran a search to replace Coach K. During it, O'Connor writes, it became clear that university president Vincent Price wanted Amaker to get the job.

Sources told O'Connor that, eventually, Krzyzewski called Amaker and what the book describes as «a very difficult conversation» with his former assistant, who had been gone from Duke for 25 years. During it, he told Amaker that if he came back, he'd have to be