Mike Krzyzewski meets with Duke students to explain outburst

Less than 24 hours after Mike Krzyzewski was screaming at Duke's student section, some students saw a different side of the Blue Devils' coach.

Wednesday afternoon, Krzyzewski met with 40 to 50 students who were staying in tents outside Cameron Indoor Stadium, an area known as Krzyzewskiville. According to The Chronicle, Duke's student newspaper, Krzyzewski spoke for 30 minutes, explaining his outburst Tuesday night was due to the emotions he was feeling over the death of Kobe Bryant, as well as his close relationship with Jeff Capel, Pitt's head coach, who played at Duke and was later an assistant coach under Krzyzewski.

During Tuesday's game, Krzyzewski told Duke students to "shut up!" while they were chanting, "Jeff Capel sit with us." After Tuesday's game, Krzyzewski said he didn't hear the chant clearly, but when he heard Capel's name, he thought the students were saying something personally insulting.

That led to Wednesday's meeting.

"Today was about sort of clearing the air between Coach and the tenters, if there was any air that needed to be cleared," co-head line monitor Ben Succop told the Duke Chronicle. "Just to kind of bury the issue and grow and move past it."

Succop said the meeting was largely facilitated by Debbie Savarino, an assistant athletic director at the school as well as Krzyzewski's daughter and the mother of freshman guard Michael Savarino.

Robert Lane, a Duke senior who attended the meeting, said Krzyzewski detailed his relationship with Bryant -- whom he coached for 11 years with the U.S. national team -- and described himself as "emotionally charged."

Lane added that Krzyzewski detailed how Capel was booed by Duke fans while playing for the Blue Devils, which was part of why he was upset when he heard fans chanting at Capel by name on Tuesday.