Well, Krzyzewski started it.
So here is what happened. Following Duke's loss to Wake Forest the "Leader of Men" aka Mike Krzyzewski made the following comment to Bob Harris in the one-on-one postgame interview he does on the Duke Radio Network:
Nolan hyper-extended his knee at Maryland and has been dealing with that since - and unlike other schools we don’t release our injuries - so I thought he played a strong game tonight. It was good to see that. He has been getting healthier although he did tweak it again tonight.
The "other schools" Coach K speaks of is pretty much understood to be North Carolina which on Friday decided, "the heck with it" and tell the media about all the injuries. Duke on the other hand apparently does not feel the need to inform the world about any injuries they might have, that is until after they lose a game. Which is odd to even mention them, because the injuries did not really matter. Last I check Jon Scheyer was perfectly healthy except he could not hit a shot the other night. Greg Paulus is also in perfect health(or is he?) but went 3-9. And Nolan Smith? Yeah, he scored 20 points hurt. The only player you think is suffering is Gerald Henderson who injured his wrist versus UNC and we can only be thankful K is not still playing the victim card on his behalf. So I am not sure why talking about his players injuries matters as it relates to losing in Winston-Salem nor can I figure out why he cares UNC discloses their injuries before they play on a regular basis. At any rate, it was enough to put Roy Williams in a bad mood during his radio show Monday night:
Has the injury report improved since Saturday?
“Well, it’s not, and regardless of what somebody else says about them having injuries too, which is a bunch of bunk, so I don’t give a [flip] what somebody else says. They can coach their own [darn] team and I’ll coach my team – in case anyone had heard some statements about that. But for us, I was surprised that Deon [Thompson] was able to do something, but yet, he couldn’t continue playing so he sat out. It was an injury enough that he did not play in the second half. Ty Lawson is injured enough that he has not played in four games. Bobby Frasor is injured enough that he hasn’t played in how ever many games that is. So [when] somebody talks about us publishing our injuries, they should have enough things to worry about their own selves.
I have heard the original quote and IC has cleaned it up a bit. Bottom line is Roy did not care for Coach K's comments. And in some ways he has a beef. I think were UNC is concerned, the decision to disclose has to do with the fact UNC has 3-4 guys who have are injured severely enough they are missing time or were clear seen to be injured. So much of this disclosure is geared towards heading off the media and giving them the information they are clamoring for instead of dealing with it in piecemeal. It also should be noted that UNC had not been in the business of releasing all the information until before the Virginia Tech game. For example no one knew anything about Tyler Hansbrough's infected toe or Quentin Thomas' back spasms until after the win at Virginia. In fact the first I heard of the Hansbrough toe problem was from a reader who emailed me reporting a rumor he picked up the day of the Virginia game. So for UNC I think it simply an desire to fully disclose everything that is happening with the team whereas Duke does not care to be all that forthcoming in that endearing New England Patriots sort of way.
And not that I really care. If Duke wants to keep the team maladies a secret, then more power to them, that is their right and really nothing new in Durham to do so. That being said, it reeks to then trot those injuries out after a loss in what can be construed as an effort to offer a veiled excuse. It is also unnecessary to cite the team eight miles down the road and their practices of reporting such injuries as though UNC is doing with ulterior motives in mind. In essence, I agree with Roy. Every coach should tend to his own team and quit worrying about how the other guy chooses to deal with similar situations.
Then again, this is UNC-Duke. Good times to be sure when the coaches start going at it.