A Great Article About Duke Under Jon Scheyer

You’ll like this one.

Over at the Duke Chronicle, Ranjan Jindal has a great column up on how Duke has done so far under Jon Scheyer.

It’s one of the best commentaries on Duke under Jon Scheyer we’ve seen.

Here are some of the high points:

• “The program is right where it left off. We’ve been in the top 10 in the country for both years. We got to the Elite Eight this year. People don’t know how hard [Scheyer’s] job is, taking over after the GOAT. That’s not easy work. Just give credit to him … I love him.”
• “However, there are things that you can, namely effort and defensive intensity. In the NCAA tournament, Duke flipped a switch on the defensive end. The Blue Devils might not have reached the Elite Eight without Proctor diving on the floor in the final minutes against Houston for a steal or closing out strong on the last possession. They competed on every possession, holding three straight teams under 55 points in the tournament, a feat nobody else accomplished.”
• “Criticize the [tournament] loss [to NC State] and the lack of shooting down the stretch all you want, but I strongly caution against making broad accusations implying the loss was indicative of the program’s direction and calling the season a failure. It’s hard to reputably question the mental toughness of this Duke team especially with the pressure it faced and the response it gave.”

When you think about it, Scheyer is doing several things at the same time.

First, he’s replacing a legend, possibly the GOAT of coaching, Mike Krzyzewski. Second, he’s trying to maintain an historic program at the same level. Third, he had to replace virtually the entire roster in his first year. And fourth, he’s doing all of this at a time of profound change in the game.

He’s really done an amazing job and the future is extremely bright.