Coach's corner: Duke's Mike Krzyzewski

• Coach K says he loves Duke%2C and he loves college basketball
• Krzyzewski believes Jabari Parker has plenty of room to be even greater
• Coach K will lead the U.S. team at the Olympics for the third time in 2016

DURHAM, N.C. — It's no secret Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski loves his involvement with USA Basketball.

Coach K is signed on to coach the U.S. men's basketball team through the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and once you get him talking about international basketball these days, it's hard to get him to stop.

He'll point out photos and show you trinkets from Beijing and London in his office. He'll share stories featuring LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. He'll tell you coaching against international competition is one of the most rewarding experiences he's had in his career.

"At this point in your career, where do you learn? You don't go to clinics," Krzyzewski told USA TODAY Sports this week. "Being around (USA Basketball), there's a lot of pressure. I've learned a lot.

"It's been invigorating."

Krzyzewski admitted that before the London Games, he wasn't sure how much longer he wanted to coach. At 66, he's done it all — four national championships at Duke, 11 Final Four appearances, and, with USA Basketball, a 62-1 record that includes gold medals in 2008 and 2012.

Then he agreed to coach through Rio, and he's said he wouldn't coach the Olympic team if he weren't still coaching college basketball, too. (He's got to stay sharp somehow, he said.)

So instead of stepping away from the sidelines, Coach K is re-energized and aiming for yet another NCAA title. This week, thanks to a big win against No. 21 Michigan, his eighth-ranked Blue Devils are starting to look the part of a true championship contender. They're playing better defensively, and the offense is getting more balanced. There's a long way to go until March, but Coach K sees his players making progress.

Krzyzewski spoke with USA TODAY Sports national college basketball reporter Nicole Auerbach this week in his office about international basketball, the temptation of coaching in the NBA and Jabari Parker, his sensational freshman star.

Q: You have been involved with USA basketball for some time now, and so many players gain experience with national teams and international competition these days. Why is that? What's so appealing?

A: Jerry (Colangelo) has done a great job. What USA Basketball has done has helped everything in our country — the NBA, college, youth. A lot of the kids today who are the top players have been touched in some way by USA Basketball. It makes them better. It makes everybody better, being a part of it. … I think Jabari's experience with USA Basketball helped him immensely. Now, that's also where he got hurt. But it's been good for him, really good for him. … The thing about international basketball is we as a country for so long think about it as 'our' game. It's not our game. It's the world's game. The NBA has done an incredible job of getting out there. When you're in China, Europe, Africa, wherever — it's NBA. David Stern and his team and all the players in the NBA have done an incredible job promoting the game. USA Basketball now has also done that, but the NBA has done the best job of it. Part of it is you want to make money, and also individually, players have really marketed themselves all over the world. When we played in the Olympics in '08, Kobe Bryant is adored in China. He goes over there all the time.

Q: Isn't he the most popular player there?

A: By far. I goofed around with him. I said to him, 'If they had free elections here, you would have a chance to win.' But I think that's been good. Competing against those (international) coaches and teams, for me it's been amazing. To watch Argentina over a period of time, with (Manu) Ginobili and (Luis) Scola and all those guys, the spirit. They have more continuity with their offenses, whereas the NBA is more isolation and two-man games and that. College has some continuity, but all these (international) guys don't have a position. Big guys pass. How they play defense. Some of the ways they look at the game. It's been incredibly interesting. We have to play really well in order to have a chance to win, where our country doesn't believe that. … The world knows that we believe they're good, and they are. Before that, (the thinking was), they're not that good; we can put a team together, 12 guys in two weeks and send them. Can't do that. Both of our Olympic wins were tough games against Spain.

Q: In the last few months, we've seen Butler coach Brad Stevens make the jump to the NBA, and almost like clockwork, there are rumors about John Calipari potentially returning to the NBA, too. You never made that move. Why? What kept you in the college game?

A: I'm wondering for me if that was presented to me earlier with the amount of money (coaches get today). … You're talking about making a lot of money. I make a lot of money now, but I didn't. Most college coaches, you didn't. That's more recent. The thing for me is I love Duke. I love college basketball. I didn't coach for money, it was just what I loved to do. (Syracuse coach Jim) Boeheim would be the same way. (Jim) Calhoun, guys like that. When it came time, in '90, I was close to going to the Celtics, but I was mostly interested in working for Dave Gavitt. Not so much going to the NBA. I loved him. I think he's one of the great sports people of any sport in our country ever. With the Lakers about nine years ago, I thought, maybe, I'm 57. It might be time to change. The money, I never thought that, wow. It was amazing. But at the end of the day, I couldn't give up this. I love Duke. I love college. By that time, I was making good money, not generational money. I'm glad that I've never gone. With Brad, I actually think it's a great move on his part. He's one of the really brilliant coaches and good people. He has no demons. He's smart. I think it was a great move at the time because I think he'll end up being a pro coach. He went to an organization that hired him for all those reasons, not just one of them. That's who they are. If he didn't like it, anybody in college would want him. It's almost like a no-brainer. People were shocked, but I thought, that's a hell of a move on his part. I called him and told him, "I think it's a great move. I think you're going to be terrific.' And I said, 'The guys will respect the heck out of you because you'll respect them. You'll adapt to them, too. They're always going to know what they're doing. They'll trust you.' … He'll do great there.

Q: Everyone's talking about Duke freshman Jabari Parker (who is averaging 22.1 points and 7.8 rebounds a game). What do you like about his game?

A: I think eventually Jabari will be able in college to defend every position because he has really good feet. His body type, it doesn't look like he should have great feet. But he actually can defend the perimeter better right now than the post, because he's never had to defend (the post). I'm not saying he's LeBron, but LeBron can defend every position. LeBron's a better athlete — I don't know who's a better athlete than LeBron. There isn't any, so that's not knocking Jabari. I think once he learns what physical shape he needs to be in — he's still a young man — he'll be amazingly versatile. Right now, he's still learning the game and where to position himself before he gets the ball. He's so confident once he gets the ball, you end up being not as disciplined in some of your movements before you get the ball. Like, (against Michigan on Tuesday), every time he got the ball right on the elbow, he scored. We're going to try to get him the ball on the elbow but he goes 6 feet out, he ends up taking some shots he can hit but it lowers the percentage of success. It's not like it's a bad shot but it's not as good as it could be. He still hasn't learned yet how to play in the post.

Q: It seemed like you tried to go to him more in the post on Tuesday.

A: We put stuff in to get him there. He'd be amazingly difficult to defend. He would demand a double. Then because he can pass … if he didn't score from the low post, he could get scores. The other thing it does is, if he commands that double … if they load up on you inside, it brings the defense in and that's where (Quinn) Cook got those open shots (on Tuesday).

Q: After the Michigan game, you talked about having a team with a story of development, instead of a story of high expectations and having to live up to them. You worked so hard to get to a certain point in your career here and build the Duke brand, but is it harder to sustain it all?

A: It's not pressure, but to sustain excellence in anything is, by far, harder than attaining excellence. You have to do it over and over and over again. If you do it over and over again and you have the same people, like you're a pro team. You're New England. You have (Tom) Brady for a number of years. You have somebody teaching your culture and knowing who you are along the way. In college basketball, with the changes that are done with personnel with guys going pro and guys transferring, at our level you can have a new team every year. Sustaining it now is amazingly difficult. Last year, when I had three seniors who are really good, that's unheard of. They're three pro players. If we didn't get hurt — I mean, we made it to the Elite Eight — we had a chance last year. We were 30-6. They knew us, and we knew them. This year's team is completely different, although we're still called Duke. You have potentially the best player or one of the best players in Parker, you're going to be good. What happens is even though your team has good kids and whatever, they kind of believe they're already good. But they're not. They're not learning all the things that are necessary. I think right now we're at a point where we understand that. It's not about bad attitudes or anything. It's about the changing of roles.

Q: Players kept bringing up the Vermont game (Duke escaped 91-90 in November), saying things along those lines.

A: The Vermont game, we're up by 17, 18 points and my feeling is our guys just feel they're going to win. The other thing for us is, Vermont is good. They were playing bad for five games. But they have five kids who are 22 or 23 years old. They're well-coached. They're predicted to win their conference. Everything can go away if they play well against us. They didn't play well, they played great. It wasn't just that we weren't good. They played great. Our team has to understand that the team we see on tape is not the team we necessarily see at that point when we play them. I think our team understands right now that you have to change roles. Quinn Cook had a great game (Tuesday) night. He had no points in the first half and played really well. That's what we told him, 'You're going to shoot the ball a little more.' The second half, he was terrific. But he was not more terrific in the second half, for me. He's had to adjust. He played with three seniors last year. I tell our team all the time, 'Last year, you guys were in a drama. This year, for lack of a better term, you're in an action movie. The role you played in a drama, you were good at. It's a different role.' I think that's where Rasheed (Sulaimon) is having a tough time. It's a different role, and you don't have these seniors around. How he thinks he's doing the role is not how it should be done. There are changes like that. Arizona is not going through that. Kentucky is going through that. Michigan State is not going through that. Kansas is, because they have all new guys. There has to be a period of time. … We have to run this team not based on ranking and all that. How do we get them along? The last three games we've played really good defense. Why? Well, Tyler (Thornton) and Josh (Hairston) are in the game. They're our senior guys. There's stability around Jabari, Rodney (Hood) and Quinn. (Tuesday) night, some of the younger guys played well. Matt Jones played well. Amile (Jefferson) played like he can play. Marshall (Plumlee) gave us good minutes. It's a work in progress.

Nicole Auerbach, a national college basketball reporter for USA TODAY Sports, is on Twitter@NicoleAuerbach.