Patience, patience, patience, my friends...

That's the cry I would send out to athletic directors all across America. Sometimes they are too quick with the trigger, giving the ax to their leaders.

	Duke's Mike Krzyzewski has become college basketball's unofficial statesman.

You can correlate it to football at Notre Dame. There were many screaming for Bob Davie to be given the ziggy. A year ago, it was struggle city at 5-7 and many were restless among the Notre Dame alums, subway alums and fans. Many in the South Bend family were beginning to believe the end was near for the coach.

You couldn't tell that to Davie and his staff. They rolled up their sleeves and faced a difficult schedule ths season. Their first five games featured Texas A&M, Nebraska, Michigan State, Stanford and Purdue. They found a way to get to the winner's circle in three of those five. That led to a great run and a 9-2 finish, leading to a BCS bowl bid against Oregon State in the Fiesta.

Why do I mention that patience? It also relates to basketball, to a brilliant guy down in Durham, N.C. If Duke athletic director Tom Butters took the advice of all those who wrote letters against Mike Krzyzewski in the early '80s, he would have been gone, baby!

Think about it -- in Krzyzewski's second and third years at Duke, he posted records of 10-17 and 11-17. Many an athletic director, especially at a prestigious school which had recently reached the Final Four (Duke made it under Bill Foster in 1978), might have pulled the trigger.

Not Tom Butters, who knew better. He understood Krzyzewski's sense of pride, his motivational ability, his teaching skills. Butters knew it was just a matter of time before some outstanding kids would say "yes" to the Duke coaching staff. As they say, the rest is history.

Eight Final Fours, back-to-back national championships in 1991 and '92, more than 500 Ws at Duke and the court named in his honor. Coach K will likely finish his coaching career at Duke and he fits that puzzle so perfectly.

At Kentucky, last week there were fans writing and calling sportswriter Billy Reed, complaining about Tubby Smith. A few tough losses and people start screaming. Let me tell you, the Kentucky coach is one of the outstanding ones in America.

So what happens when everyone is down on the Wildcats? They come out and win big-time at Chapel Hill. There are too many people only interested in "what have you done for me lately?"

In this day and age, where there is so much visibility and exposure compared to 20 years ago, every move a coach makes on the higher level is critiqued. Every player's problems are scrutinized and evaluated and it always comes back to be blamed on the coach.

Today it is tougher than years ago. Administrations get loads of heat from alumni, from people up on top, all wanting instant success. People aren't willing to wait, and sometimes outstanding talents are let go before they have the chance to prove whether or not they can be winners.

Bob Davie and Coach K proved their administrators were right. The beneficiaries have been the Golden Dome football team and the Cameron Crazies down at Duke.

The word is patience and the trigger is often pulled a little too soon.