A little more than a week after turning down the Los Angeles Lakers and the $8 million per season they were offering, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was in more familiar and comfortable territory yesterday -- in the middle of a few hundred kids teaching and talking about basketball.

Tony Tye, Post-Gazette Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski was at Robert Morris University yesterday to talk to players at the Five Star camp. Click photo for larger image.

The setting was Robert Morris University and Howard Garfinkel's Five-Star basketball camp, an annual stop for the coaching legend for the past 30 years. Ten of the 12 Duke players who wound up being NBA lottery picks attended Five-Star camps.

During his hour-long speech to campers, Krzyzewski talked about those players. Every time he name-dropped it was with a purpose.

Krzyzewski said he knew he had to have Mike Dunleavy and Jay Williams, former Duke stars, as recruits when he saw them at a Five-Star camp. They were far and away the most talented players at the camp, but Krzyzewski stuck around until late at night to watch them away from the court. He waited while the teams did drills after a game and the players huddled with their coach.

Krzyzewski wanted to see Dunleavy and Williams as a part of the group. When they broke the huddle with enthusiasm, he knew he had to have them.

"That's what we look for," said Krzyzewski, who has coached in 10 Final Fours and won three national championships.

Krzyzewski talked about listening, eliminating distractions and work ethic. Anyone, he said, can lift weights if they like to lift weights. It's more about having the drive to do things you don't like that make you better.

"Bobby Hurley," Krzyzewski said. "I love him. He won two national championships. Every day after practice he went on the StairMaster for a half an hour or 45 minutes. He would always try to break his record from the day before. After he was done, he would leave a note for his teammates. It said, 'Anybody who thinks they can beat it, try it.' Bobby Hurley never got tired in games. You want to be better? Get in better shape."

But perhaps his best anecdote didn't involve a Blue Devils player, but included a North Carolina Tar Heel. It was before the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Krzyzewski was an assistant coach with the first Dream Team. He had known Michael Jordan on a casual basis, and was preparing himself for some good-natured ribbing when Jordan approached him after one of the practices.

"I think he's coming to bust my chops," Krzyzewski said. "He comes over and says, 'I want to work on my offensive moves for a half an hour. Can you work with me?'

"Jordan knew you don't get better alone."

Before his speech, Krzyzewski met with reporters and talked about his family's roots in Western Pennsylvania and his summer trips as a child to Uniontown, where his grandparents settled and where family reunions were held yearly.

"There's only a couple of places we're from," Krzyzewski said. "Pittsburgh, Cleveland or Chicago or somewhere between those places."

One of the reasons Krzyzewski investigated the Lakers opportunity was because of the growing number of players who leave college early or don't attend college and go to the NBA. In the past few months, Duke lost high school recruit Shaun Livingston and freshman Luol Deng to the NBA. Elton Brand, Carlos Boozer, Williams and Dunleavy are some of the others to leave after short stints.

"I would like to see us work together with the NBA and the players' union to adopt something like baseball has," he said. "I don't feel like you can have an age limit anymore. Too many kids have come in out of high school and have been successful. But I would like to see two or three years. If a kid goes to college, they would stay. I would also like to see those kids get accredited in some way with the NBA. That's their biggest incentive to get out, so that they get to their second contract quicker. That's a big part of the whole thing."

It was clear by the end of the afternoon that Krzyzewski was content coaching at Duke, where he is entering his 25th season. It just didn't seem possible that Krzyzewski would have been able to captivate pro players the way he captivated the attentive youths yesterday.

And at 57, he doesn't plan on stopping anytime soon.

"I think I'm still going to coach for a while," he said. "That thing with the Lakers, I did inventory and asked myself how much do I still want to do this? And I answered myself and said 'Yeah. And I want to do it passionately.' I see myself doing this for a while."