March Madness: Duke's Jon Scheyer filled the biggest shoes of all after Coach K left, and he appears to be a perfect fit

Jon Scheyer wasn’t naïve to the challenge of being the guy after guy.

When he learned four years ago that Duke was considering him as a potential successor to the retiring Mike Krzyzewski, Scheyer studied the grim history of coaches who have tried to follow a legend.

“I did my homework,” Scheyer said Saturday. “Very rarely do people succeed.”

To say that Scheyer has been the exception to that rule is the ultimate understatement. Scheyer isn’t just handling the pressure of coaching in the considerable shadow of Krzyzewski. He is authoring one of college basketball’s smoothest and most successful transitions from coaching icon to hand-picked successor.

Scheyer crossed one more major milestone off his to-do list Saturday night, guiding Duke to its first Final Four appearance in his three seasons as head coach. The top-seeded Blue Devils booked their ticket to San Antonio with an 85-65 demolition of dangerous Alabama in the East regional title game.

The impossibly long, athletic roster that Scheyer assembled stifled an Alabama offense that two nights earlier against BYU drained 25 3s and piled up 113 points. The Blue Devils stormed to an early double-digit lead, kept second-seeded Alabama at arm’s length for most of the game and then late in the second half connected with a vicious knockout punch.

Out-scheming Nate Oats on an NCAA tournament stage further validates Scheyer as the ideal choice to take over for Krzyzewski. He improved to 89-21 as Duke’s head coach and moved within two wins of joining Bob Knight and Dean Smith as the only men to win a national title as both a player and as a head coach.

At other schools who have recently replaced a legend, the transition has been much bumpier. Villanova has already fired Jay Wright’s successor, moving on from Kyle Neptune after three straight seasons without sniffing an NCAA tournament bid. Syracuse had to give Adrian Autry a vote of confidence earlier this month after two dreadful seasons trying to follow Jim Boeheim.

Even Hubert Davis has endured more downs than ups since taking North Carolina from a No. 8 seed to the 2022 national title game. The Tar Heels became the first preseason No. 1 team to fail to make the NCAA tournament in 2023 and then came up short of an NCAA bid once again this season.

Duke coach Jon Scheyer was 27-9 in his first two seasons at the helm. This year the Blue Devils are 35-3, and will be favored to cut down the nets in San Antonio. (Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images)

(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect / Reuters)

Why has Scheyer been so much more successful? Scheyer describes Krzyzewski’s oft-criticized so-called retirement tour as a “huge thing” because it gave him an extra year to learn on the job even after the five-time national champ announced his impending retirement. It also can’t hurt that Krzyzewski has truly stepped away and given Scheyer space to make the program his own.

“I don’t know how many coaches genuinely want to see the program succeed when they leave,” Scheyer said Saturday. “For me, I’ve always wanted to make him proud.”

The successful recruitment of a generational talent was the first pivotal moment in the construction of Scheyer’s first Final Four team. That began when former NBA power forward Brian Scalabrine called Scheyer to make him aware of a 14-year-old kid from Maine who in Scalabrine’s estimation was a “no-brainer” Duke recruit.

At first, the idea of Maine producing a can’t-miss prospect seemed crazy to Scheyer. Then he scouted Cooper Flagg in person for the first time the following summer.

“I remember watching him and saying, Skal was right,” Scheyer said. “It took me about 90 seconds.”

While Scheyer caught a lucky break that Flagg’s mom had been a Duke fan since the Christian Laettner heyday and that she had passed down her love of the Blue Devils to her sons, Kelly Flagg told Yahoo Sports last fall that it’s “a misconception” Cooper was a Duke lock. Scheyer beat out the likes of UConn and Kansas by building a relationship with Cooper through in-home visits, trips to the driving range together and fiercely contested games of cornhole.

“He was able to get to know Cooper in his element, who he is as a person and not just as a basketball player,” Kelly said. “Cooper is a relationship guy. Loyalty is everything to him and Coach Scheyer and his staff put in the work and put in the time.”

Flagg’s October 2023 commitment to Duke raised the stakes for Scheyer’s third season as head coach. His first team had been a long, athletic defensive juggernaut that lacked the shooting or scoring punch to truly contend for a national title. His second team had been loaded with outside shooters at the expense of its perimeter defense or rim protection. Now Scheyer sought to build a team around Flagg that possessed the best of both of its predecessors.

Shortly after Duke’s crushing upset loss to NC State in the Elite Eight last March, Scheyer’s roster was decimated by NBA Draft declarations and transfers. Kyle Filipowski and Jared McCain turned pro. Mark Mitchell, Jeremy Roach and five other players hit the portal. The only players that Duke returned from last season were guards Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster.

In many ways, that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It allowed Scheyer and his staff to dive into the portal to handpick complementary players who could fit alongside Flagg and fellow projected lottery picks Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach.

The needle that Scheyer had to thread wasn’t easy. He needed veteran players who were good enough to contribute at Duke yet egoless enough to come to a program where shots and minutes weren’t guaranteed. He needed guys who were willing to play a role, guys who were willing to cede the spotlight to freshmen.

Tulane transfer Sion James appealed to Scheyer because of his ferocious perimeter defense and potential as a playmaker and outside shooter. Ex-Syracuse big man Maliq Brown offered rebounding and defensive versatility, while ex-Purdue sharpshooter Mason Gillis already had experience as a valuable role player on a top-tier team.

“You don’t fully know,” Scheyer admitted earlier during Duke’s NCAA tournament run. “You’re praying. You’re guessing a little bit. You try to really do your homework in a short period of time.”

The roster that Scheyer built is the best Duke team in a decade, better than the 32-win Zion Williamson-R.J. Barrett juggernaut, better than the Paolo Banchero-led group that took Mike Krzyzewski to one last Final Four. The Blue Devils are challenging the narrative that a freshman-driven team cannot win a national title in the era of 24-year-old COVID seniors and grad transfers.

Before his team’s second-round NCAA tournament matchup with Duke last weekend, Baylor coach Scott Drew was asked about the Blue Devils going 6-foot-5 or taller across their starting lineup. That was challenging, Drew admitted, because Duke has “great skill with that.”

“Normally taller players might not be as quick or as athletic or skillful, but those guys shoot and pass and dribble,” Drew said. “You don’t see many weaknesses.”

Alabama can attest to that. Only once all season have the Tide scored fewer than 65 points.

The waves of length that Duke threw at Alabama star Mark Sears prevented him from finding even a sliver of space behind the arc or at the rim. He did not score for the first 17-plus minutes of the game and finished 2-for-12 from the field.

“Duke is as good a team as we’ve seen all year,” Oats said. “We’ve got some really good teams in the SEC, and they’re at that level.”

As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Scheyer raised his arms in victory and wrapped Flagg in a bear hug before composing himself to go shake Oats’ hand. Minutes later, he addressed the pro-Duke crowd in Newark.

“Who’s ready to go to San Antonio?” he shouted into the microphone.

Duke is San Antonio-bound, and the way Scheyer is crushing it, this might be the first of many Final Fours to come.

Celebrity News

March Madness: Duke’s Jon Scheyer filled the biggest shoes of all after Coach K left, and he appears to be a perfect fit

Leave a Reply Cancel reply