For as long as most college basketball fans can remember, Mike Krzyzewski has been in charge of the Duke Blue Devils. He’s led Duke through multiple eras and coached them to five national titles over his impressive career. Coach K has been synonymous with Duke, and it is hard to picture a college basketball world without him in charge of the Blue Devils. However, he announced before the start of the season that 2021-22 would be his last ride.
The good news is that Coach K had a succession plan in place. Jon Scheyer, an assistant coach familiar with the program, is going to take over and replace the historic coach. These are some of the biggest shoes to fill in the history of sports, but the Blue Devils are confident. They could have hired almost anyone to take this job, and they chose an internal promotion for a reason.
According to Bovada (visit our Bovada Review), Duke is the early favorite to win the national title next year. That’s extra pressure. So, how will Scheyer do as the head coach?
Jon Scheyer’s Background
Scheyer was an elite high school basketball player out of Illinois. He was a four-star shooting guard who turned into a point guard for the Duke Blue Devils. Scheyer played for Coach K at Duke and became a captain. He also helped lead the Duke Blue Devils to a national title as a senior and led the team in scoring.
Scheyer played a season in the G League and a few overseas. After that, he joined Coach K’s staff as an assistant. He was then promoted up to an assistant coach and finally became a co-associate head coach. He filled in for Coach K as the head coach when he was unavailable due to quarantine.
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Scheyer is not the only former player to be an assistant for Coach K. Most notably, Nolan Smith was a successful basketball player for Duke before joining the staff as an assistant coach. He was then hired to join Louisville’s staff as an assistant coach. Now that we know a bit about Scheyer’s career trajectory, how will we define success?
How to Grade Success
If you had asked me a few months ago, I would have said to set the bar low. After all, you can’t lose the greatest college basketball coach of our generation and expect to still compete. However, things are different after the NCAA Tournament.
First and foremost, Duke made it to the Final Four. This team took massive strides at the end of the season, and any returning player will be looking to achieve this again. Also, North Carolina made it to the championship game with a first-year head coach taking over for a legend. Hubert Davis set the standard, and Scheyer has to meet it.
The good news is that Duke has the best recruiting class coming in. They bring in three of the five best recruits in the country, including two centers that are around 7 feet tall. They may add players from the Transfer Portal as well, which would raise the talent on the roster.
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Recruiting isn’t everything, but it raises the ceiling for a roster. If you have an insanely talented group of players, you can achieve anything under the right circumstances. So, Duke has a good coach who lacks experience as the main person in charge. They have the best recruiting class with the potential to add to it. Is this a recipe for success?
Will Scheyer Win at Duke?
Something tells me that Duke won’t fall to the wayside without Coach K. He wants his legacy to live on, and he ensured that the team was in capable hands once he retired. If he believes that Scheyer is the man for the job, then Duke should be able to compete.
We’ll see if Duke can sustain success in the long run once you have to churn through multiple recruiting classes, but the team should be talented and motivated this season. Duke is far from a lock to win the title next year, but it’s easy to see why they are the favorite. At least for next year, they will easily be successful.
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