GREENVILLE, S.C. — The power went out, a circuit breaker blew, some server needed rebooting — no one really knew what went wrong. But the normally lockstep precision of the NCAA Tournament fell apart Friday night after Duke's win over Cal State Fullerton, as Mike Krzyzewski and three of his players sat on an elevated dais under hot television lights and ... just sat there for minutes, whispering to each other in front of dead microphones.
As they waited for the sound to return, Krzyzewski joked, unamplified, about his "nervous anticipation for the quality of questions." Maybe, after a loss, he might have been steaming over the delay. On this night, he seemed unperturbed, as were his players.
It was an uncomfortable (and avoidable) situation handled, to use one of Krzyzewski's favorite words, with "verve," which also happens to be exactly what Duke will need against Michigan State on Sunday, and beyond if the Blue Devils advance.
Krzyzewski may not have his own Roycabulary like his former counterpart from down the road, but there are a few words and phrases that pop up more than others, that over four decades have become shorthand for various moods and frustrations and joys. A player who gets hot or a team that goes on a run has a "spurt." Experiencing almost any kind of adversity is being "knocked back." Superlative teams and players and events are "not good — great." Occasionally, things are "amazing," with the sibilant Z of Chicago's West Side.
But the king of them all, the one that speaks most to how Krzyzewski is really feeling, is verve. When he says it about his team, it signifies a certain confidence in it and approval of it. When he, rarely, says it about an opponent — Syracuse, without Buddy Boeheim, played with "great verve" in Brooklyn — it is the highest of praise. It even made it into Duke's game notes, on Jeremy Roach's "Verve at Virginia."
Krzyzewski often says it after games when Duke is particularly fluid on offense, connected on defense, engaged on the boards, talking on the bench, diving for loose balls. Or when a player has been particularly engaged on defense, perhaps locking down an opposing star.
"To me, it means like, a certain level of energy, a certain — not just energy, but cockiness with energy," Krzyzewski said. "So that's how I've used it. Just don't look up my SAT verbal. It's a one-syllable word, too, so that helps me."
The word, and everything it represents, is particularly applicable in this postseason, given Duke's perpetual search for the mojo it lost against North Carolina and in Brooklyn, the quest to get back where it was against Kentucky and Gonzaga. There are countless moving parts in that dynamic, from expectations to fatigue to inattention to the inexorable pressure of these circumstances, obvious to everyone.
"The Duke guys might feel burdened that it's Coach K's last whatever they do," said Michigan State's Max Christie, a rare Duke recruiting loss. "For us, we're just going out there to win the game."
But it still all boils down to Duke reaching its full potential and playing with energy, connection, aggression and swagger.
There's a word that captures all of that.
How far Duke goes in this final Krzyzewski season may depend on just how much verve it can generate, just how many of those conditions it can fulfill.
The curious part of it, considering how often he uses it, is that his players have apparently never heard him say it. Asked about it Saturday, they exchanged baffled looks and shrugged shoulders.
Mark Williams turned to his right, to ask Roach: "Verve?"
"I never heard that," Paolo Banchero said.
"He hasn't said that one," Wendell Moore said.
Krzyzewski, however, insists they've heard it, although acknowledges it may not be as much a part of vernacular as it is his.
"They've probably heard me say it," Krzyzewski said. "They just only listen to a certain amount of things that I say, and maybe they haven't heard that. Sometimes when I talk to my players, afterwards I ask my staff, 'Do they still do that? Do they know who the hell I even mentioned?' So I don't think 'verve' is on Instagram very much, or whatever they're on."
They may not have heard it. Their season may depend on whether they can achieve it.
