Having been spurned by both Shaka Smart and Cuonzo Martin in recent days, Marquette is picking from the Mike Krzyzewski tree by naming Duke assistant Steve Wojciechowski its new head coach. He will replace Buzz Williams who left for Virginia Tech last month.

It is a bold, yet predictable, move for Marquette, which battled through a mediocre 2013-14 season in the Big East and was not invited to the NCAA Tournament. At first, the Golden Eagles went after a couple of established and successful coaches in Smart and Martin. Then, per its recent history of going after top assistant coaches, Marquette nabbed Duke's Associate Head Coach to take over. However, to say the university settled by choosing Wojciechowski is erroneous. After 15 years on Duke's bench, Wojo deserves a chance to run his own program.

Wojciechowski's pedigree is worthy of the position. He has been around high level basketball since his playing days at Duke in the late 90s. Not only was he a part of Duke's NCAA Tournament teams, including its 2001 and 2010 national championships, but he has also served as Krzyzewski's assistant on two Olympic gold medal teams. By all accounts, he can coach at a high level.

"He's like a fireball of energy," said former Duke player Casey Sanders. "It's really hard to describe. He expects us to be alert and alive at all times, and he pumps it into everything we do." Source: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

However, the question remains. Can a Duke assistant excel at a school without high academic requirements?

This not an indictment of Marquette’s academic integrity. On the contrary, the university has a very strong reputation. However, looking at schools currently coached by former Duke assistants, there are some stark differences in entrance requirements between them and those at Marquette. For example, to get accepted into Duke, an applicant would have to have minimum SAT scores of 660, 690, and 670 in Reading, Math, and Writing respectively. Marquette, comparatively, asks for only a 520, 550, and 530. For the ACT, Duke needs a 30 composite while Marquette is just a 24.

We ask if having Duke coaching training lead to success at other top schools. Former Duke assistants have taken over at universities, like Duke, that require higher than normal academic standards in order to be accepted. Mike Brey has done relatively well at Notre Dame. Johnny Dawkins has been successful at Stanford, taking the Cardinal to the Sweet 16 this year. Chris Collins is in the process of building up Northwestern's basketball program. And Tommy Amaker has put Harvard basketball on the map with NCAA Tournament upsets two years in a row.

When Duke assistants take over at less strict institutions, they have only found limited success. For example, Quin Snyder left Missouri under allegations of recruiting violations and other misconduct. Amaker, before he took over Harvard, was run out of Michigan for underwhelming success, despite the fact that he was hamstrung by self-imposed sanctions from previous coaches.

So the big question at this point is whether or not Steve Wojciechowski can replicate his success as a Duke assistant in the not as grade friendly confines of Marquette University. The good news, according to a ranking published by US World News and Reports, is that Marquette is ranked in the top 100 (#75) for universities with high academic standards (In contrast, Harvard is #2, Stanford is #5, Duke is #7, and Northwestern is #12.)

So "Wojo" has his work cut out for him. If he succeeds, he will help dispel the stigma that coaches from the Coach K Tree are only cut out for "smart kid" schools. If not, it is back to the abacus for the Duke coaching staff.