Special K's 12 Disciples: Will Any of His Pupils Reach NCAA Tourney Final Four?

One of the biggest questions popping up from time to time deals with who is most likely to eventually succeed Mike Krzyzewski as coach at Duke. Let's face it! We won't get the answer from halftime fielding of blah lack-of-info babe how-do-you-feel questions. Krzyzewski almost always dispatches one of his minions to endure such aimless interrogation torture apparently in order to reduce risk of re-injuring his back wincing at their incurable futility.

Coaching community shills frequently proclaim automatic success for Duke assistants when they become bench bosses. But the overall impact of Coach K's 12 disciples in the aftermath of serving under the all-time winningest major-college mentor has been anything but special. They've combined for a losing mark in the NCAA playoffs (60 fewer tourney triumphs than Coach K's all-time high of 91) and only three regional final appearances (Quin Snyder with Missouri in 2002 before Mike Brey with Notre Dame in 2015 and 2016). Following is an alphabetical list summarizing the impact of Krzyzewski's assistants after they left his incubator and became a DI bench boss on their own:

Coach K Assistant NCAA Tourney Mark Biggest Flaw of DI Head Coaching Career
Tommy Amaker 4-5 14 games below .500 in power conference competition in 10 years with Seton Hall and Michigan
Bob Bender 2-3 36 games below .500 in power conference competition in nine seasons with Washington
Mike Brey 13-14 no NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearances in first 11 seasons with Notre Dame
Jeff Capel III 4-3 losing power conference record in five seasons with Oklahoma
Chris Collins 1-1 losing record in Big Ten Conference play in first four seasons with Northwestern
Johnny Dawkins 2-1 only one NCAA playoff appearance and 10 games below .500 in Pac-10/12 Conference play in eight seasons with Stanford before dismissal led him to UCF
Mike Dement 0-1 losing conference mark in SWC and WAC in nine seasons with Southern Methodist
David Henderson DNP losing overall record in six seasons with Delaware
Tim O'Toole DNP losing overall record in eight seasons with Fairfield
Quin Snyder 5-4 never finished among undisputed top five in Big 12 Conference and compiled cumulative losing mark in last three of seven seasons with Missouri
Chuck Swenson DNP lost more than 2/3 of his games in seven seasons with William & Mary
Steve Wojciechowski 0-1 losing Big East Conference record in first three seasons with Marquette