BEIJING • Accepting the task of leading America’s Olympic men’s basketball team leads to the heights or the depths.

The job transforms a coach to national hero or national pariah.

We’re watching the coronation of Mike Krzyzewski, who’s on the brink of leading the United States back to its accustomed perch atop the basketball world.

The U.S. and Coach K demolished Argentina, 101-81, Friday to return to the gold-medal game.

Coach K’s rise is painful to watch for those who despise his homogenized image, but even his critics must admit he’s resurrected the Americans.

Four years ago, the Americans limped through the Olympics as a dysfunctional disaster.

In the previous 68 years, the United States lost two Olympic games. Under Larry Brown’s confused and confusing direction, the 2004 team lost three games in two weeks.

A squad drained by dissent four years ago now rolls along as Team Harmony. Players – Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James – who battled with Brown now serve as loyal Coach K soldiers.

“Oh, he deserves a lot of credit,” Anthony said of Coach K. “He motivated us to put our basketball team where it’s supposed to be.”

Coach K’s job might seem easy. He is, after all, leading one of the history’s greatest collections of talent.But you try telling Wade, one of the NBA’s top dozen players, and Chris Paul, the world’s best point guard, they’re coming off the bench.

Paul laughed when I suggested no one – not even Jason Kidd – should start over him.

“I’ve enjoyed coming off the bench,” Paul said with such fervor that I wondered if he spoke the truth. “I love being in this role.”

Coach K has reached out to his players, creating loyalty. He can, despite a big age difference, relate to his team.He’s as rich as many of his players after earning a mountain of money with his books, ads and fat salary.

He’s impressed his players with his desperate thirst for victory. Coach K is a basketball brand name. He’s directed Duke to the 10 Final Fours, winning three national titles.

He could be smug.

He’s not. He wants more.

Krzyzewski has expertly crafted a marketable public image. His hair hasn’t moved in a quarter-century. He speaks in a monotone.

While his players and fellow coaches slouch during the national anthem, Coach K stands at perfect attention, hand over heart, following rules learned as a West Point cadet.

His Olympic players see a different version of Krzyzewski. Away from the cameras, he’s a snarling creature still desperately chasing victories.

“He wants to win,” Paul said. “He wants to win so bad. Sometimes we have to calm him down before games.”

The players calm Coach K by laughing at him. He doesn’t mind. He chuckles with them about his comical level of intensity.

The laughter could stop Sunday. It’s tempting to overlook Spain, the Americans’ last obstacle. The U.S. is 13-1 in gold-medal games, and the Americans already pulverized the Spanish in the prelims.

Don’t worry. Coach K will remind his players of the allegedly unbeatable U.S. softball team, which somehow found a way to fumble its all-but-guaranteed gold.

He will never stop pushing this amazingly gifted band of players. There’s no stopping this team on its road to gold.Sunday looms as a brutal day for those legions who despise Coach K.

He’s about to become a national hero.-Contact the writer: Columnist David Ramsey can be reached at 476-4985 or david.ramsey@gazettedev.gazette.com. Check out David’s blog at http://daveramseysez.freedomblogging.com

Team USA’s Kobe Bryant drives to the basket against China’s Wang Zhizhi during men’s basketball game at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Sunday, Aug. 10 2008. (AP Photo/Dusan Vranic) Photo by