Jon Scheyer, center, claps for his team as he makes his debut as Duke’s men’s basketball coach in a win over Jacksonville on Monday night. Ben McKeown/Associated Press
DURHAM, N.C. — It was 6:50 p.m. Monday night when Jon Scheyer walked onto the court where he “grew up,” as he put it later.
This time, though, was different. Scheyer didn’t jog out with his teammates, and he didn’t walk out with Duke’s other assistant coaches. The players and his assistants were already on the court, and ancient Cameron Indoor Stadium – which opened before World War II – was buzzing. As Scheyer walked calmly through the maelstrom of music and sound, the crowd spotted him and the cheers quickly grew very loud.
And then, from the student section, came this: “We want six, we want six.”
The reference was to the five national championship banners that hang at the north end of Cameron, all of them won during the 42 years that Mike Krzyzewski coached the Blue Devils.
So much for reasonable expectations.
“I didn’t hear it,” Scheyer said later. “But I’m not surprised.”
Scheyer understands exactly what he’s walked into. Succeeding an icon is never easy. Gene Bartow went to the Final Four in 1976 after succeeding John Wooden at UCLA and was judged a failure. A year later, he fled Westwood. Bill Guthridge went to two Final Fours in three years after succeeding Dean Smith at North Carolina – and there was dancing in the streets of Chapel Hill when he retired prematurely. Roy Williams, it should be remembered, was the third coach to follow Smith and had a six-year gap for protection.
Monday’s 71-44 victory over Jacksonville marked – finally – the beginning of the Scheyer era at Duke, 17 months after he was anointed to succeed Krzyzewski. Scheyer is 35, the youngest coach at a Power Five school this season. He’s also two years older than Krzyzewski was when he arrived here in 1980, seven years before Scheyer was born.
Most power schools like to open their seasons with a breather, but Jacksonville wasn’t exactly that. The Dolphins won 21 games a year ago and returned four of five starters. They were less likely than most to be intimidated by Cameron’s raucous atmosphere. They also have a distinguished basketball history of their own, having played against UCLA in the 1970 NCAA championship game in Cole Field House.
The star of that team, future Hall of Famer Artis Gilmore, was in the building doing color commentary for the Jacksonville radio broadcast on Monday. “He’s the mentor for all of Jacksonville basketball,” Coach Jordan Mincy said. “I rode to shootout with him this afternoon. I call him grandpa. I always feel better when he’s around.”
Gilmore is 73, Mincy 36, so it’s understandable.
Gilmore is two years younger than Krzyzewski, who wasn’t physically present Monday but whose legacy was impossible to miss, from the five championship banners – not to mention 13 Final Four banners and 15 ACC Tournament championship banners – to the giant banner at the south end celebrating his all-time NCAA record of 1,202 victories.
Krzyzewski’s final season produced 32 wins and a trip to the Final Four but ended on a down note when the Blue Devils lost to archrival North Carolina in the national semifinals. The Tar Heels return four starters from that team and were ranked No. 1 in the preseason. Duke returns two players – total – from last season, meaning Scheyer’s first team is bound to have ups and downs.
That was evident in the first 15 minutes. The Dolphins were clearly not intimidated by the atmosphere and trailed 25-22 with the ball with just under six minutes left in the first half.
But then, Kevion Nolan, their best player, took a rushed three-point shot and the game turned at that moment. “We grade our shots,” Mincy said. “A good one is an ‘A,’ an OK one is a ‘C,’ and a bad one is an ‘F.’ He came over to me afterwards and said, ‘Coach, I know that was an ‘F,’ shot. I told him he was right.”
A three-point shot a moment later by Jeremy Roach, Duke’s only returning starter, was the start of a 17-4 pre-halftime run that gave Duke a 42-26 margin and pretty much put the game on ice.
“I thought we needed a little time to settle in,” Scheyer said. “Jeremy’s shot was huge, his whole game was huge for us. We’re going to need that from him the whole season.”
Krzyzewski still has his palatial office in Cameron – he is technically a Duke “ambassador,” which means he is a fundraiser for the school. Scheyer went to see him Monday afternoon.
“I think he just wanted to talk,” Krzyzewski said. “Not a mentor to protege thing, just coach-to-coach. He wanted the game to start.”
Scheyer agreed. “You can get to a point when you have a lot of prep time where you begin to over-analyze,” he said. “I caught myself watching Jacksonville tapes from last season twice. At some point you just have to trust your instincts and go play.”
Before he walked to the court, Scheyer had a moment alone in his new office next to the team’s locker room to think about the evening ahead.
“I told myself to trust the work we’ve all done to get ready,” he said. “But I also reminded myself to enjoy this moment. I’m the coach at Duke – I mean, how lucky am I? I felt very good about where I was walking out there.”
When Scheyer was named Krzyzewski’s successor in June of 2021, Krzyzewski made the point that he was better prepared to coach at Duke than he was when he arrived from Army in the spring of 1980.
“He’s played in the ACC and coached in the ACC, he understands recruiting at this level,” Krzyzewski said. “I had none of those things.”
The difference is that Krzyzewski didn’t have to succeed Krzyzewski.
“A blessing and a curse,” Scheyer said, laughing. “I do think I’m better prepared because I learned from him as a player and an assistant coach. That should help me. I was the same age (33) as he was when I was named the coach. I feel ready. I know we’ve all done the work. My attitude last night was, “let’s go and do it.”
Scheyer has several blue-chip freshmen on his team and another top-rated recruiting class on the way. He also has four graduate transfers to lend some much-needed experience. He is now 1,201 wins behind Krzyzewski.
“Good to get the first one under our belt,” he said with a sigh. “If I said I wasn’t nervous beforehand, I’d be lying. I didn’t see them as a typical opener. They will give a lot of teams trouble.”
Krzyzewski, who watched the game from home and says he’ll never go to a game at Cameron – “where would I sit without being a distraction?” he said – wasn’t at all nervous. “I know they weren’t great shooters and our defense would wear them out,” he said. “I was very relaxed watching.”
Which is easy to say when the spotlight is shining brightly several miles away, on the seat where you sat for 42 years.
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