Duke University wanted to hire Harvard basketball coach Tommy Amaker last spring to replace the retiring Mike Krzyzewski, even going so far as to offer him the job.

However, Coach K talked his former player and assistant out of taking it so he could ensure his preferred candidate would succeed him, according to a new book by New York Post sports columnist Ian O’Connor.

In “Coach K: The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski,” O’Connor reports that Duke offered the job to Amaker, the former Seton Hall and Michigan coach, before hiring Duke assistant Jon Scheyer to take over the decorated Blue Devils program after the 75-year-old Krzyzewski finishes the current season – his 42nd at the school. 

In retirement, Coach K believed he would maintain more control over the program through the 34-year-old Scheyer than the 56-year-old Amaker, sources told O’Connor for the book. Scheyer has never coached anywhere else, while Amaker left Duke in 1997 for Seton Hall.