Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski cuts down the nets after the Blue Devils won the title in 2010. (Photo: Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY Sports) The 12 active national title-winning coaches in men's college basketball have seen seismic changes in the game over the past few decades. Against the background of the 75th NCAA tournament, USA TODAY Sports offers lengthy interviews with these dozen active title-winning coaches, all of whom still are head coaches at the Division I or II level. They provided a window into their ever-changing world, offering perspective on several big-picture issues that affect modern-day college basketball. PREVIOUSLY: Coaches on the best team of last 25 years PREVIOUSLY: Coaches talk NCAA tourney history PREVIOUSLY: Coaches on recruiting, cheating Saturday, March 23 question: What was the defining characteristic of your last title team? Calipari: "They were unselfish. When your fifth and fourth leading shot takers, Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, are the No. 1 and two picks in the draft, it says a lot. When Michael Kidd-Gilchrist in the locker room prior to the Vanderbilt SEC tournament championship game says bring me off the bench and let Darius [Miller] start because he's not playing well and we need him in the NCAA tournament, that tells you what my team was about." Krzyzewski: "They had ownership and tremendous experience together. They were one. The starting five. Individually they were really good, individually you could pick some weaknesses. But collectively they really did not have – I am not saying they were this powerful – but they didn't have any weaknesses. They were one. They were old and good and together. Old, good, pretty talented and together is nice combination." Williams: "I thought our 2009 team was really, really good because we had guys who could score at every position and appreciated the defensive end of the floor." Self: "Competitive spirit. They played well, but they loved it when people challenged them. Loved it. Lived for it. We would have a big lead and somebody would make a run and you could see they huddle up and say, Okay, now it's time. They loved that moment." Donovan: "Really, really connected as a team. Really unselfish. I would say the No. 1 thing is an internal will. There are so many things that are charted -- field-goal percentage, 3-point field-goal percentage, rebounding, rebounding margin, assist-to-turnover ratio, steals, blocked shots -- but I've never seen a stat yet that comes out about those 50-50 plays. What happens when the ball is up in the air? What happens when the ball is loose? ... If someone shoots 40%, that's 60% missed shots. 60% of the time, the ball is loose. When guys have an internal will to make those kinds of plays, I think that's really, really important. I think the understanding of the 3-point line is so critical, how to defend it and how to take advantage of it offensively. Guys that are not afraid of the moment. The more and more you advance, the more tension that comes. Being able to embrace that and still being able to understand, yes, this is the Final Four or the national championship, but it's still a 40-minute game. Not allowing the moment to take you out of doing your job." Boeheim: "Tremendous youthful --- not knowing they could not win. Not knowing they could not win. The two best players were freshmen, the next two were sophomores. And they did not realize they could not beat a veteran Kansas team or a veteran Texas team. They just did not realize they could not beat those guys. So they went out and beat them." Izzo: "This will sound corny, but an incredible love for one another. They're all still best friends. It's incredible. That's one. Phenomenal leadership and phenomenal follower-ship. I had great leaders and even better followers. That's another key. If you're not going to be a good leader, you better be a good follower. I had that, and probably almost topping anything except the leadership, they just wanted to win. Winning was the most important thing. They say that a lot around here because of Magic, all he cared about was winning. It's so hard to be that way nowadays. There's this pro thing that creeps into everybody. ... Managing that. The minute a coach says something, it's like he's not for you leaving, and that's so far from the truth. I had two guys who could have left as juniors -- Cleaves and Peterson -- and when Cleaves announced he was coming back, it was, 'I have unfinished business. I came here to be Magic. I wanted to win a high school championship, a college championship, a world championship, an Olympic championship.' He believed that. He did it for that reason. Some will say it, if they're on the bubble of whether they should come out or not. He believed it. It was his whole goal. I'd promised him when we recruited him that we'd schedule the world. That year, we scheduled the world, and the guy gets hurt and misses the first half. That year was just nothing but we have goals we set. They lived up to the standards of the goals we set. They worked for them. I've never had a team like that and we've gone to five other Final Fours. " Smith: "They had no quit in them. They were called the 'Comeback 'Cats.' Cameron Mills, Jeff Sheppard, Allen Edwards, Scott Padgett, Wayne Turner, Saul Smith. They just competed and just would not quit. I tell our guys in the drills. Just finish the drills. Just finish the play. We had to come from behind to beat Stanford in overtime in the Final Four. Then we had to come from behind from the largest deficit at halftime in a championship game to beat Utah. We had developed a mentality. We had some talent and the league was pretty tough. The SEC was pretty good. Unless you have great players, you will have to grind it out. And that team was the best team I've ever had where they could focus in and grind it out. They would bend but they would not break." Pitino: "That team, I can't go back to the Wooden era because it was a different format then. But in modern day, I thought that team was the most overpowering team in college basketball. I don't think there was a team that came along as good as that in the last 30 years. We went through a very tough SEC with a margin of victory of 28. And they blew out everyone in the tournament with the exception of the final game, Syracuse. They were just a machine, where the second unit on that team could have had a great chance of winning the national championship. Our 13th man was Nazr Mohammed." Fisher: "The 1989 team, we could score in so many different ways. We had Glen Rice, who still holds so many scoring records. And we guarded to the point where we had a lot of opportunities to run out. We could score in so many different ways to hurt people." Brown: "You look at my Kansas team. Jeff Gueldner we beat Eastern Illinois. Scooter Barry was supposed to go to Stanford at the end of the day didn't go. Milt Newton we beat Ohio U. Chris Piper we beat some NAIA school with a bunch of names. Cedric Hunter was supposed to go he was asked to be a walk on at Nebraska. I saw him at a track meet. We had the best player in Danny. But we had good hard-nosed tough kids who wanted to get better. Every time [Tom] Crean sees me, he says that's the guys you've got to get. I believe that. We have to get kids who want to be coaches, don't have these crazy illusions even though they have a goal. Then it will be fine." Massimino: The defining characteristic was that we had a really big family-oriented group that were very emotionally involved throughout the year. It started out with me telling them we played Pitt at Pitt and five minutes to play don't go to the NCAAs. Ten of them came down just three weeks ago just to be with all our kids at Florida. They stayed at my house. Eddie Pinckney was not there because he had a game. Presley came from California. We started out with two kids four years ago. Now it's 10. Howard Jensen came. Chuck Emerson came. They love my wife's cooking, so that was more of an inducement." Story Highlights
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