Peter James Gaudet (born March 27, 1942)[1] is an American collegebasketball coach.[2] He played varsity basketball forIona Prep in 1959 and 1960 before going to Boston University, where he graduated in 1966.
He began his collegiate coaching career as an assistant toMike Krzyzewski atArmy. When Krzyzewski left forDuke in 1980, Gaudet was named his successor as head coach.
After leaving Duke, Gaudet worked as an assistant men's basketball coach for theVanderbilt Commodores men's basketball program before moving as an assistant to the women's basketball programs atVanderbilt andOhio State.[3][4]
After leaving the Army program in 1982, Gaudet rejoined his former boss at Duke, serving as Krzyzewski's top assistant from 1982 to 1995. During this time, Gaudet worked alongside current Harvard head coachTommy Amaker, current ESPN analystJay Bilas, current Atlanta Hawks assistant coachMike Brey, and current Atlanta Hawks head coachQuin Snyder. He helped lead Duke to two NCAA men's championships and sevenFinal Four appearances. An expert in player development, Gaudet coached eight All-Americans, three National Players of the Year and 12 NBA draft picks.
When Krzyzewski took a leave of absence in early 1995 due to a back injury, Gaudet was promoted to interim head coach. He inherited a team that had started 9–3, but the team struggled to an eventual record of 13–18 overall and 2–14 in the ACC—still the most losses in school history. Despite Gaudet's interim status, Duke credited the final 19 games of the season to him rather than to Krzyzewski, though Gaudet expresses no regrets or bitterness concerning this.[5][6]
In the midst of a landmark class action lawsuit against the NCAA,[7] Gaudet did not return to the Blue Devils' bench for the 1995–1996 season.
| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Army Black Knights(Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference)(1980–1982) | |||||||||
| 1980–81 | Army | 7–19 | |||||||
| 1981–82 | Army | 5–22 | |||||||
| Army: | 12–41 | ||||||||
| Duke Blue Devils(Atlantic Coast Conference)(1995–1995) | |||||||||
| 1994–95 | Duke | 4–15 | 2–13 | 9th | |||||
| Duke: | 4–15 | 2–13 | |||||||
| Total: | 16–56 | ||||||||