Breaking News: First Two Years As Duke’s top Have Been Pretty Amazing as he announced his retirement but It’s more that he just seemed young

Though Scheyer is still very young, nothing compares to the accomplishment of successfully establishing his own brand within Duke Basketball.
As you may have observed, we have occasionally discussed the continuing shift from Mike Krzyzewski to Jon Scheyer. It’s been an intriguing undertaking.

While Duke’s run to the Elite Eight is undoubtedly a factor, it’s not the main one. It’s more that Scheyer has unquestionably stamped the program and, in our opinion, emerged from Coach K’s long shadow.

Now, let’s take a little glance back.

Scheyer appeared a little…overwhelmed when Krzyzewski announced his retirement. That’s not the word, though. Not ready? Not at all.

More than anything, he basically gave off the impression of being a youthful apprentice replacing an experienced coach. For anyone in such circumstance, that can’t be simple.

Do you recall his debut match? At least it felt like way to us when he was on the sidelines. Still, he was getting used to it.

However, he first made his impact in recruiting lights-out, which was fortunate because only Jeremy Roach and Jaylen Blakes returned from Coach K’s final team due to Duke’s one-and-done attitude during the Late K period.
Prior to falling to Tennessee in the Round of 32, Scheyer triumphed in both his first NCAA game and the ACC Tournament last year despite overcoming serious ailments.

He faced difficulties once more this season as multiple players sustained injuries, most notably Caleb Foster, who hasn’t played since the Wake Forest defeat.

Duke had a poor conclusion to the regular season, falling in the ACC Tournament to NC State and then UNC.
Since then, though, the Blue Devils have defeated a very difficult #1 seed in Houston on Saturday night and were outstanding against Vermont and James Madison.

Duke will take on NC State in the Elite Eight in an attempt to advance to the Final Four.

With all due respect to Krzyzewski, who we believe should know how important this is, Scheyer seems to have emerged from Coach K’s long shadow.

Consider how challenging this is.

John Wooden’s retirement from UCLA did not cause it to occur. Adolph Rupp’s retirement at Kentucky did not bring it about. Joe B. Hall’s gratitude was never completely realized. When Bob Knight left Indiana, it didn’t happen there, and it hasn’t happened there since. Before Roy Williams returned home, UNC went through Bill Guthridge and Matt Doherty like fire.

After Al McGuire, Marquette took a very long time to recover, Syracuse is uncertain with Jim Boeheim’s departure, and St. John’s has struggled since Lou Carnesecca resigned in 1992 (Carnesecca will turn 100 in January, by the way).

The only team that has this down pat is UConn, but they had to endure the painful end of the Kevin Ollie period before they could bring in Danny Hurley, who is doing an outstanding job.

In summary, Scheyer has accomplished a lot in just two years: he virtually rebuilt the team from scratch, recruited the best players in the league, amassed a record of 54-17 (76 percent), won the ACC Championship in his first season, and advanced to the Elite Eight in his second. All of this has occurred during a time when the sport has seen significant change, which he appears to be ahead of.

It’s essentially a royal flush, save for a national championship, which is still conceivable. It actually is quite beautiful.
Furthermore, based on the group of players he has selected for the upcoming season, there’s little reason to doubt that further success is in the offing.

He is obviously in a much different circumstance than Krzyzewski. Around the same age, in 1980, Coach K joined Duke, and the team only had three elite players. It took him a year to learn how to bring in players for Duke, and another year to develop the players he signed in 1982. Coach K needed three seasons to produce a successful campaign, and it wasn’t until the 1985–86 campaign that he advanced past the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament.

He has stated that his first three years were extremely difficult, and some supporters wanted him to go.

Scheyer walked into a world of huge expectations, which made his circumstances significantly different, though not necessarily any easier.

Duke will undoubtedly face years of hardship in one form or another. Just take a look at the outrageous amount of injuries Houston has faced this season.

That may just be the breaks or the game being diced by the Basketball Gods. Krzyzewski experienced that; anybody who coaches for a sufficient amount of time experiences it.
But the truth is that Scheyer has performed admirably under extreme duress and is gathering steam for even more.

We believe that this change is complete. Now that it’s in his hands, the program is obviously in capable hands.