As basketball nears, Duke's Krzyzewski wants more leadership from NCAA

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- A month out from the scheduled start of college basketball, Mike Krzyzewski likes what he's seeing from his team.

"The best is when a staff gives energy and players give energy back, and we got that going really, really well now," Krzyzewski said. "It's been crazy good."

With the annual influx of fresh faces and some talented returners, the potential is certainly there for success.

"We have a lot of pieces, and we're going to play a very up tempo game, fast paced, but we'll be playing more people than we've normally played. But that doesn't mean it'll be equal playing. You know when you get separation, the guys who separate some need to play more." Krzyzewski said Wednesday.

Everything remains shrouded in uncertainty though. While Krzyzewski sarcastically commended the NCAA for making decisions, he reiterated his feelings that there is a leadership void especially when it comes to outlining shared safety protocols.

"Hopefully by the time we do play that there will be national protocols medically so that everyone who's playing against one another will be under the same medical protocols," he said.

Duke has a tentative 27-game schedule in place. The whole world -- basketball included -- is tentative, of course. Though Krzyzewski is confident there will be a March Madness this season, he has no idea what it'll look like, and who it will include.

"From the very start, this was not looked at (by the NCAA) as a time where we have a pandemic, you know, then it really goes up to the conferences to figure it all out. So we're going to have March Madness," he said. "We don't know how teams will get in, we don't, we don't know a lot of things."

As far as he sees it the mission this year is less about a championship or bust and more about getting to the finish line safely.

"That's the key thing in all of this -- the sensitivity to the kids playing the game and making sure it's a safe environment," he said.

Duke's basketball program, down to the secretaries, has yet to have anyone test positive. They are given daily PCR tests.