DURHAM, N.C. — Jon Scheyer envisioned being a teammate of LeBron James, the Miami Heat edition, and having a long-time NBA career before trying to break into coaching. When an eye injury abruptly ended his playing career, it put him on a fast track to what he could not have imagined back then:
Replacing Mike Krzyzewski as the head men’s basketball coach at Duke.
He’s prepared to do just that now. Scheyer was officially introduced Friday as the Blue Devils’ coach-in-waiting in a news conference attended by his family, former teammates and assembled guests at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Scheyer will finish the upcoming season in his role as associate head coach before taking over the 2022-23 season.
“I don’t expect this to be easy; I don’t expect to be given anything; we do not expect to be given anything,” Scheyer said at the news conference. “But I’m always going to show up. Always going to show up and do whatever it takes to succeed at the highest level here and what the standard that’s been set at Duke.”
Once Mike and Mickie Krzyzewski decided the upcoming basketball season would be Coach K’s last as Duke’s coach, outgoing athletic director Kevin White said the school consulted with Collegiate Sports Associates (CSA) search firm. The school used 10 days to decide his replacement was already on staff.
“There is no one better prepared or more committed to carry on Coach K’s legacy and to drive the continued eminence of our basketball program and our university than Jon Scheyer,” Duke president Vince Price said Friday during a news conference introducing Scheyer at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Scheyer won an NCAA championship as a player under Krzyzewski at Duke in 2010 when he was a team captain. He’s been on Duke’s staff since 2013 and the team’s associate head coach since 2018.
Former teammates Gerald Henderson, Brian Zoubek and Lance Thomas came to attend Scheyer’s press conference in person. When Scheyer saw them and acknowledged their presence from the dais, he got a bit emotional and had to pause to gather his words.
Henderson, who was his former roommate in college, said he drove from Charlotte. Zoubek flew in from Philadelphia. Thomas took a flight from New York. All of them felt it important to support Scheyer. And they all agreed Scheyer has always had coaching in him even as a player.
“He was our headiest player,” Henderson said. “Always knew time and score. Always would make the right play.”
The right play for Scheyer in replacing a legend like Krzyzewski , the sports’ all-time leader in wins (1,170) who has led Duke to five NCAA championships, is to not try to be Coach K. That may seem difficult with Krzyzewski still holding a position at Duke in retirement and he will be physically present at times.
But Scheyer embraced the fact that Krzyzewski, who was seated with his wife with the rest of the spectators during Friday’s news conference, will still be around the program after he steps down.
“I’m secure in who I am, Coach K is one of one, he’s one of a kind, and I would be unsuccessful if I tried to be him,” Scheyer said. “Nobody can be Coach K. Now with that said, I’m not stupid. If there’s something that I can go to him and talk to about, I have the best resource in the history of college basketball that I could ever have. I’m going to go to him. Our relationship stands on its own. So I feel excited about it, I think it’s an incredible advantage, I think it’s an amazing thing for the university to have in here, and I’m frankly not worried about that at all.”
Coach K’s praise of coach-in-waiting
At age 33, Scheyer is the same age Krzyzewski was when he became Duke’s coach back in 1980. Krzyzewski had been Army’s head coach since 1975 when he arrived at Duke. Scheyer has no head coaching experience.
Nolan Smith, who shared the backcourt with Scheyer on Duke’s 2010 national championship team and is currently an assistant coach, doesn’t prescribe to the theory that Krzyzewski’s successor needed to be someone who had been a head coach.
“The experience thing gets blown out of proportion,” Smith said. “Especially for a guy who’s played this game, knows this game, and it’s well documented that his IQ for this game is very high.”
Krzyzewski said Scheyer, who’s been on Duke’s staff since 2013, is equipped to keep the Blue Devils winning when Krzyzewski steps aside after this season.
“Jon’s done everything, and in the last few years, we’ve taken it up to another level,” Krzyzewski said Thursday during a press conference at Cameron Indoor Stadium. “He’s one of the smartest coaches in the country, to be quite frank with you. Nobody knows that as well as I do.”
In some aspects, Krzyzewski started handing responsibilities for Duke’s basketball program over in the past couple of seasons. Scheyer, Smith and assistant coach Chris Carrawell have had more and more control of things than previous assistants may have had.
“They understand the core values and everything that we do, and then Jon will be able to put his own personal stuff on it,” Krzyzewski said. “He’s not going to say, ‘What did Coach K do?’ They don’t do that now. I don’t have complete control over my practices now. I’ll say, ‘I thought we were supposed to do this,’ and they would respond, ‘Coach, we think that this would be better.’ I’m kidding a little bit about that, but not completely.”
That’s one reason why rising senior guard Joey Baker said he believes Scheyer will make a smooth transition into being the head coach. He’s already been involved in every aspect of being a head coach. Baker said Scheyer was also the lead in recruiting him to play for the Blue Devils and maintaining player relationships has been a trademark of his.
“He’s super involved, a lot of times in practice, he’ll oversee the entire thing,” said Baker, who was in attendance on Friday. “Coach (Krzyzewski) will obviously be there, chipping in throughout, but he’s had a major role especially more recently.”
Scheyer’s ‘blood, sweat and tears’ with the Blue Devils
When Krzyzewski informed Duke’s administration, mainly Price, retiring athletic director Kevin White and incoming athletics director Nina King, of his plans to coach one more season before retiring, they were all in favor of Scheyer being the man to replace him.
“Jon won the job,” White said Friday, “and he did it intellectually, emotionally and passionately. I’m just really proud.”
Said King, “Simply put, Jon Scheyer is Duke. His blood, sweat and tears are in these hardwoods.”
Scheyer said he and the assistant coaches who will stay on with him — Carrawell and Smith — are driven to keep Duke on top.
“We have an incredible pride in this program,” Scheyer said, “in the blood sweat and tears that Nina mentioned that we put into this.”
