YouTube Gold: Greg Paulus On Duke And Coach K

Greg Paulus is probably a bit underappreciated as Duke Basketball player. A tough point guard, Paulus was not as physically talented as some other guys who have passed through Cameron but he was smart, tough and never made excuses. We loved him and just wish that he had had more individual success.

Paulus was an immensely promising quarterback but he always said that basketball was his first love and that his goal was to become a coach.

He achieved that probably earlier than he expected when his boss at Niagara, Patrick Beilein, resigned before he ever coached a game and issued this statement at the time: “Personal reasons I can no longer take lightly have led me to step away from my dream job. Going forward, I must give singular focus to dealing with these issues, so that I can become the man that I strive to be. In time, it is my hope that I can be more open about my ongoing circumstances, but in the meantime, I thank you all for respecting my family’s need for privacy and for all of your continued support.”

You can probably get a rough idea of what he’s not talking about but we digress.

At last year’s Final Four, Paulus sat down with the Field of 68 and talked about Mike Krzyzewski as his career wound down and what it had meant to him to play for Duke and Coach K.

It’s obvious that Krzyzewski had a major influence on him.

Incidentally, Paulus just finished his fourth season at Niagara. He started rather abruptly with young Belein’s situation (his father is John Belein if you didn't make the connection) and finished 12-20 in his first season. Standard pass for the Covid season when Niagara was 9-10. The following year was 14-16 and last year he finished 16-15.

Toss in the new transfer rule and NIL and Paulus has had nothing but instability since he took over. But things appear to be going in the right direction. You might want to keep an eye on him going forward.