The United States coach has his eyes on future tournaments as he tries to build a program that attracts the best players in the NBA every summer.
While the United States have famously enjoyed success in Olympic Games, including taking gold two years ago in Beijing, it is now 16 years since they last won a World Championship.
To end that run in Turkey, they will have to do it with a young team missing every man from the roster that won in China.
But Krzyzewski is not concerned about individuals so much as a culture of success and a program that builds teams the right way.
"We're not going to get the same guys over and over, like the guys who were on the Olympic team - and we think a lot of those guys will come back for London, a number of them but not all of them," he said.
"So we're trying to develop a culture.
"Krzyzewski's 13-man roster right now carries five 21-year-olds and is short on size after the loss of several big men to injury.
As such, Krzyzewski admits it will be an uphill challenge to end the World Championship hoodoo next month.
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| Photo: www.usabasketball.com |
"We have five guys who are 21 so it’s a much younger team (than Beijing)," he said.
"They’re still becoming players, they’re still getting better as players, so they have a lot of development to do.
The youth of our team is probably the biggest concern, and then how well we can rebound because we’re not a real big bulky team.
"But we have great attitudes, excellent speed, I think we can play good defense and we have to use those strengths to overcome a little bit of our weaknesses.
" Over the coming days, the United States will take on both Spain and Greece in pre-tourmanent friendlies, and those games could provide an insight into how competitive they will be in Turkey as they match up with two of the other favourites to take gold.
"I don’t know if there is one favorite for the World Championship," Krzyzewski said.
"I would think with the youth that we have on our team, we think we have a good chance at it, but we know that Spain and Greece are the most experienced teams.
"Spain is very talented, you have a lot of NBA players, guys who have played internationally together.
They’ve played a lot together as a team and that’s always something that a US team has to try and overcome when they are playing internationally.
"They’re usually playing against a team that has played together for a while.
And always Argentina is there.
Those four teams will be very strong finishers for a World Championship."
Meanwhile, Krzyzewski was able to breathe a sigh of relief after Stephen Curry avoided serious injury on a sprained ankle suffered on Wednesday.
"He'll be fine,'' Krzyzewski said.
source:fiba.com
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