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Here he goes again. This time, he hopes, into harmonic balance of championship and charity, of hardwood and health. Of time and trade and time and tradeoffs.

Mike Krzyzewski , owner of three NCAA championship rings, a Hall of Fame bust, two surgically repaired hips and one well chronicled physical and professional meltdown, again has the No. 1 college basketball team in America as Duke's season begins tonight.

In February, he will witness the grand opening of the Family Life Center named in memory of his mother.

In March and April, perhaps another run toward an NCAA trophy.

Next summer, he embarks on the final professional frontier, one that merges his time in the Army with a career of figurative, courtside combat.

A decade ago, this sort of frenzy built the rack on which Krzyzewski 's mind, body and career were placed. In 2005 and beyond, he thinks it will be different. And the reason, to paraphrase a line that permeates his soon-to-be-curtailed motivational speeches, is the people: the recruiting coordinators, the fund-raisers and the little ones who call him "Poppy."

"You could say he's doing more than ever before, but it's a matter of efficiency with that time and with our program," said Mike Cragg, a Duke athletics administrator who runs the school's basketball-specific donor organization and who arranges many of the coach's personal appearances.

The Devils, buoyed by the return of two senior All-Americans and the influx of some typically talented freshmen, start at 7:30 tonight against visiting Boston University in the Preseason NIT.

But when does it end?

'Everything came down'

The story has been told more often than Hill-to-Laettner-to-Immortality. A couple of years after that second straight NCAA title, Krzyzewski was the pitcher who thought he could throw just one more nasty slider, that the pain would go away. It didn't, and he spent the next several months forced to admit that his body - particularly his back - was going AWOL on him.

"I never noticed it until everything came down in '95," said Chris Collins, a player on that team and a Duke assistant coach since 2000-01. "He's such a strong man, and he really prided himself on showing up to work every day and giving his best every day, because that's what we ask of our guys. He probably came back a little too early."

When Krzyzewski did return, he rebuilt the basketball operation not once but twice. The second time, it was so seamless that it was easy to forget the program's first wave of NBA-related early attrition after that 1998-99 season. Two years later, the Devils were national champions again.

And Krzyzewski was beginning to take on more endeavors. In 2002, public fund-raising began for the Emily Krzyzewski Family Life Center, a $6 million facility targeted to help at-risk youngsters and new immigrants to the Triangle.

In January 2004, Duke's Fuqua School of Business announced the formation of the Center of Leadership and Ethics (COLE) with the coach as a faculty member.

Krzyzewski has continued to give motivational speeches through the Washington Speakers Bureau, and last month he began a weekly XM Satellite Radio program on which he discusses issues pertaining to college basketball.

And there was the seemingly inevitable call from USA Basketball, which needed a public-relations coup and a transfusion for its men's Olympic program after the debacle that was the 2004 Games. Coach K became Coach USA less than two weeks after this season's Duke practice began. At least two of his next three summers will be occupied by international duties that will fall shortly after the end of the college season.

"I told my family before accepting this prestigious honor," Krzyzyewski said. "And I said, 'There are three things that I will keep in place: my family, my Duke program and trying to be part of a process that wins a world championship in 2006 and the Olympics in 2008.' "

'It's easy to lose'

It was a tornado of triumph. Starting with the 1985-86 team, Duke went to the Final Four almost every year for a decade. The seasons were long. The NCAA's limitations on recruiting weren't as extensive as they are today.

Krzyzewski says he got into a habit of overdoing things and that ultimately contributed to his leave of absence.

"In 1994-95, that was my fault," he said. "It wasn't so much personal; it was the demands of the business. We had gone to seven Final Fours in nine years. That's an incredible buildup, and I never had the chance to re-evaluate change. With that time out (in 1995), I was able to say, 'Boy, you're an idiot for doing these things. Why aren't you giving (assistant coach Tommy) Amaker more responsibilities?' We started building it differently.

"It's easy to lose. You can lose things quickly."

Amaker and others went on to run their own programs, and the coaching staff gradually was rebuilt. Energized by his own return to health, Krzyzewski surrounded himself with three of his former guards - Johnny Dawkins, Steve Wojciechowski and Collins - and recruiting again resembled a draft in which Duke selected rather than pursued prospects.

But it wasn't just the coaching staff. Over time, Krzyzewski sought more and more administrative assistance.

Athletics director Joe Alleva, a Duke athletics employee since 1980 and promoted to the top job at Krzyzewski 's urging in 1998, was eager to help.

In 1999, Duke hired an academics and recruiting coordinator. In almost every other program, the recruiting coordinator also is an assistant coach. While the Blue Devils assistants remain involved with the weekly contacts and evaluations, they've got full-time logistical support.

The following year, the athletics department promoted Cragg from sports information to administration of the newly created Legacy Fund, a millionaires' club that has raised $32 million toward endowments of scholarships and other expenses. A three-person staff attends to the needs of the donors, and Krzyzewski , unlike almost every other coach in the land, is liberated from the spring circuit of fund-raising speaking engagements on behalf of his employer.

Cragg, a longtime confidant, has helped in time-management issues by serving as gate-keeper.

"The hardest thing for Coach K is that he has always wanted to say yes to everything," Cragg said. "He still has that same tendency. But 10 years ago, there was no infrastructure protective of his time. There are so many good things that he wants to do, and he can't do them all. He does so many things people will never know about - letter-writing, phone calls, support to people. Certainly, that's our responsibility to help manage his time."

After a brief flirtation with the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers in the summer of 2004, Krzyzewski was rewarded with greater university support of the Emily Krzyzewski Center; progress on a new practice facility; and, most subtly, the creation of two support positions. The recruiting and academics responsibilities were split, and a new job, head team manager, was created.

As tangible progress on the Emily K facility construction has taken place, Mike Krzyzewski 's involvement has evolved.

"Coach's role has shifted, as we needed it to, to providing strategic direction and fund raising," said Marleah Rogers, the Center's president and CEO. "The timing is perfect for him to accept the honor and the responsibility to coach the national team. And we're all there to support him."

His Team USA players don't really know him yet, but his Duke players are confident.

"Coach went through a big personal and physical change when he got down in 1995," senior guard J.J. Redick said. "Since then, he has gradually found more and more ways to balance his life between the demands he faces. Right now, he's more equipped than he has ever been."

'Poppy, sit down'

The graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, the tough guard from Chicago who learned from Bob Knight, the most competitive son of a basketball you'll likely see? He's jelly.

Debbie Savarino, Krzyzewski 's oldest daughter, has given birth to four children since 1999. The two youngest, (almost) 2-year-old twins Carly and Emmy, don't get it yet. One day, they will learn that some people don't like Poppy because he doesn't let their teams win.

For now, being a grandparent is unadulterated bliss for Krzyzewski and a shield from the national - and soon to be international - glare.

"I'm looking up in the stands yesterday and I know Carly was amazed that Poppy would be on the court," Krzyzewski said last month. "She was smiling and waving to me. What I didn't know was that Emmy, at the same time, was saying, 'Poppy, sit down.' She's gonna be a ref, I guess."

He's Poppy to them; they're his fountain of youth.

"He's got joy in his heart," Redick said. "It's one of the greatest things to see."

Timing is everything, right?

Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rdaniels @news-record.com