Okay, I was wrong about Coach K becoming interim AD, but…

Duke had several smart reasons for naming long-time assistant Nina King as its new Vice President and Director of Athletics.

First, while the school has been as backward in racial hiring as any other predominantly white major college, Duke always likes to claim it is keeping up with the changing world culturally. So in naming King, it also named the first woman of color to hold such a position.

The smartest reason is because King won’t have sole power to hire the next football and basketball coaches when David Cutcliffe, who is 66, and the 74-year-old Mike Krzyzewski decide to step down. King has built-in advisors for the next hires from those two well-respected leaders.

Cutcliffe has told associates and close friends that he is near the end of an admired career that was interrupted by severe heart problems when he was 51. Cutcliffe came back into coaching to lead the Blue Devils to one of their strongest stretches with six bowl bids in seven years and the 2013 ACC Coastal Division championship.

Anybody who thinks the powerful Coach K won’t have the say on who his successor will be has not watched this man operate over his 40-plus years at Duke, a career that began with his earning $48,000 to his more recent annual salary and bonuses in excess of $7 million.

This is why promoting King was the smart move instead of bringing in another Kevin White from outside whose task of singly replacing Cutcliffe and Coach K would have either not been in the job description or too daunting to come in and control the process with two acclaimed coaches turning their programs over.

When Roy Williams pronounced at his retirement press conference that he wanted to have a strong say in the direction of Carolina Basketball, we knew at that moment his successor was coming from within the family, regardless of what Bubba Cunningham might have had in mind. As it turns out, if Hubert Davis doesn’t live up to the standards set by his Hall of Fame predecessors, people won’t be able to credit or blame Cunningham for the hire.

And because of how little say Nina King has in the matter, no one will give her the credit or the blame for Duke’s next two big hires.

(lead photo via Duke Today)

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