ESPN Talking Heads On Duke’s Upcoming Season

Some interesting commentary here.

ESPN’s Myron Medcalfe, Jeff Borzello and Jonathan Givony got together on Zoom or whatever ESPN uses to discuss Duke’s transition, the roster and what to expect this season from Jon Scheyer’s team.

Medcalfe said he had visited Duke and, like others, was struck by the change in atmosphere. He used the term “laid back,” which was inconceivable during the Krzyzewski era.

They went on to discuss how this team, as far as they can tell, doesn’t have a tentpole player, a guy who can just take over a game.

As for Dariq Whitehead, Scheyer told one of them that there’s no definite date for his return, but that his return will be closer to the opening than it is to the start of conference play.

Still a lot of uncertainty obviously.

GIvony said that he’s hearing that Tyrese Proctor is the biggest revelation so far. He spoke about Scheyer being impressed with his maturity and defense and that he would probably start.

They also talked extensively about the pressure that Scheyer is facing and how difficult the job could be. We’ll say this for Scheyer. Obviously things could be difficult, but he’s embracing the challenge.

It’s worth looking back at one of the moments in Krzyzewski’s career that ended up being incredibly significant.

Around 1989 - we could have the year wrong - a reporter asked a question about Coach K’s college coach, Bob Knight, and Krzyzewski took umbrage at the nature of the question, saying something like it’s not like I call him to see what plays to run.

Knight heard and was offended, and the rift may have never fully healed. But Krzyzewski was right. He had developed very different ideas than Knight had, including a much better sense of how far was too far, but also he had developed very different ideas on offense and defense.

And that’s exactly what he should have done, and it’s exactly what Scheyer should do too. Soon we’ll be done wondering and find out what he has in mind.