Jon Scheyer Was Built For This Era of College Basketball

Let's rewind back to June 4, 2021.   It was a Friday morning and I was inside Cameron Indoor Stadium waiting on the press conference that would officially announce Jon Scheyer as the next head coach of Duke Men's Basketball.  Media members and family had gathered in Cameron for what was a monumental time in Duke Basketball.  The previous day Coach K had just finished up his retirement press conference.  On that Friday Jon Scheyer was introduced as the next head coach and would start after Coach K finished up the 2021 -2022 season which would be K's 42nd and final season as the head coach of Duke basketball. 

 
Around this time and the upcoming months (or years)  2 main discussion points were talked about among the media and fans.

 1- Why did Mike Krzyzewskiville give pretty much a year notice that the upcoming season would be his last and what impact will this have?

2 - Is a young  Jon Scheyer the right coach to take over the reigns of Duke basketball?

Well it is almost 3 years later since that Friday morning in June 2021 that the Scheyer press conference was held and these questions have been and continue to be answered... 

Look... Coach K is a mastermind of the game of basketball and of life.  He knew what he was doing by giving a year notice to Duke basketball, to Duke, and to the fans of the game by announcing his retirement early.  This gave Jon Scheyer a year head start to get ready to become the head coach.  Scheyer was able to build connections with upcoming recruits as well as be on the sidelines of Coach K's last season knowing that he was next in line. 

And to think, there were media and fans that thought K was announcing early just for a victory lap.  Um... no... You don't become the GOAT coach in college basketball by thinking about yourself.   You become the GOAT by being able to constantly adapt to new eras of the game.  Coach K was able to adapt his coaching style to make the Final 4 in FIVE different decades!  He won 5 national championships with different types of teams over his 42 years at Duke that ranged from seniors and freshman to all-americans and role players.  So yeah K had a solid plan in place for the future of Duke basketball for when he was ready to retire.  

Speaking of adaptability,  Jon Scheyer was the right fit to replace Coach K as the next head coach.  In just two years of coaching Duke basketball, Scheyer has lead the Blue Devils to an ACC Championship in his first season and an Elite 8 just this past season.   Scheyer has accumulated 54 wins, (29 were conference wins and 4 were NCAA Tournament wins) in his first 2 years coaching Duke.   

This new era of college basketball requires a coach to be as adaptable as possible and that's where Scheyer was born ready.  We can just look back to when Scheyer played at Duke to see how he was able to adapt.  I know Duke fans remember when Coach K  asked Jon to move from the shooting guard spot to the point guard spot to help the team.   Look how that turned out..  Coach K, Jon Scheyer and company would eventually cut down the nets in April of 2010 for Duke's fourth national championship.   

Well the current game of college basketball is quickly changing with NIL and the transfer portal.   As some Duke fans were recently worried when Duke lost players to the portal... we now see Scheyer and his staff were adapting and preparing to build the upcoming 2024- 2025 Duke basketball roster.  Duke has the #1 recruiting class coming in along with Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster returning.   Scheyer and his staff have also been able to bring in veteran talent in Mason Gillis who transferred to Duke after four seasons with Purdue as well as transfer Maliq Brown who played his past two seasons at Syracuse.  And with open spots still left to fill on the roster, Scheyer is not done yet.   

I write all of this to now go back to the 2 questions above...  

1 - Yes Coach K had a plan all along announcing his retirement a year ahead of time to give Jon Scheyer time to prepare for the fast changing landscape in college basketball with recruiting, NIL, the portal, etc... 

2 - After 2 years at Duke with an ACC Championship, an Elite 8, and top recruiting classes as well as being able to work the portal,  Jon Scheyer was , is, and continues to be the right guy for this new era of Duke basketball.