DURHAM, N.C. — It has been greater than a decade since he performed competitively, however “competitively” is all relative to Jon Scheyer. He’ll inform you he is nonetheless concerned in high-stakes on-court competitors on a weekly foundation. The man nonetheless must hoop. Not needs to — must.
Inside Duke’s apply facility, nearly everyone seems to be a goal for Scheyer’s playful however zealous ire. He’ll push it in five-on-five with managers, walk-ons, anybody. Scheyer loves full-court pickup runs that go effectively over an hour, first to 120 factors wins. If our bodies are scarce, he’ll typically play full-court two-on-two, which appears like a psychopathic sport.
“I’ve a psychopathic job,” Scheyer’s fast to quip again.
Some assistants, gamers and help employees are mandated to play when Scheyer needs to lace up. Others — like assistants Jai Lucas and Emanuel Dildy — have been completely benched.
“They know that I will get pissed at them in the event that they play they usually do not play protection, and I am not gonna go for that,” Scheyer stated with fun. “To be sincere with you, they’re gentle.”
There isn’t a digital documentation, no whiteboard within the facility preserving tally of Scheyer’s conquests, however now that it is introduced up, he sort of likes the concept of getting one thing seen to remind everybody of who’s who and what’s what. Scheyer says he is solely misplaced one competitors of any variety with any participant, supervisor, walk-on or coach for the reason that fall interval started. Sophomore Caleb Foster — who’s 17 years Scheyer’s junior — managed to beat his coach in a sport of one-on-one.
Might it’s that the repair is in? Are Scheyer’s underlings merely throwing the video games to maintain the boss completely happy?
“What you are going to hear is that I load the groups up, that I make dangerous calls. You are going to hear some BS,” Scheyer stated. “That is not true, OK, however the fact is that I nonetheless compete, nonetheless know easy methods to play.”
The video games are each good-natured however all the time legitimately aggressive. In the case of competing, Scheyer just isn’t going to take it simple on anybody. At 37 and in his third season working arguably probably the most high-profile program in faculty basketball, bodily main by instance continues to be his most well-liked management tactic.
“The extra you might be on the market and look the half, or at the very least present them on the ground, I feel that is a bonus that I’ve,” Scheyer stated. “I simply assume it helps in the event that they see you doing stuff you’re asking them to do.”
What Scheyer is asking his staff to do would not stray removed from what Blue Devils followers will likely be searching for. Is Duke ok to make the Last 4? To win a nationwide title? Something lower than a No. 1 or 2 seed within the NCAAs — and a minimal of three NCAA Event wins — will likely be judged as a disappointment.
“It is a massive 12 months, completely,” Scheyer advised CBS Sports activities. “However I will inform you that yearly.”
This season goes to be totally different, although. That always aggressive surroundings is a breeding floor but in addition coaching for the transition of Duke’s grand unveiling in lower than two weeks.
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Prepare, as a result of Duke might be going to be The Largest Deal in School Basketball once more, probably reaching the stratospheric ranges of Zion Williamson and firm in 2018-19. Whether or not the Blue Devils are the very best staff, top-10 good or an inconsistent curiosity, Scheyer is aware of this season goes to be evaluated and adjudicated extra intensely than his first two.
The explanation for that’s apparent. Cooper Flagg.
The highest-ranked prospect coming into faculty hoops is, for now, the comfortably projected No. 1 choose in subsequent June’s NBA Draft. Due to his preternatural defensive instincts and a clean all-around sport that led to a spike in curiosity within the Nike summer season circuit, Flagg’s fame the previous two years has skyrocketed. A few viral clips of his practices with the USA males’s nationwide staff this summer season triggered a real stir, the likes of which we not often see from phenoms previous to enrolling in faculty. The basketball world is virtually salivating for regardless of the subsequent 5 months of Flagg Frenzy will carry.
Scheyer embraces all of it; because the coach of Duke, it is a part of the job description. However the system he is chosen goes to be tediously tracked. No staff within the nation is constructed just like the Blue Devils. There are 5 freshmen on Duke’s roster as well as to Flagg. Since 2016, nationwide championship-winning groups, even faculties that made the Last 4, weren’t freshman-reliant. None of them had a first-year participant as their bona fide star (which Flagg is anticipated by many to be). Even with a deployment of many older gamers (largely transfers), what Duke’s doing is pushing towards the development, particularly on this ultimate season of COVID bonus-year eligibility. A number of groups are rostering gamers 22, 23 and 24 years outdated. (To that finish, Duke has one in all them in former Purdue guard Mason Gillis, who’s already a dominant vocal presence on the staff.)
“I feel you win, nonetheless, it is outdated to me,” Duke assistant Chris Carrawell stated. “We love the one-and-dones. They’re good. They are not gonna win you a nationwide championship. Acquired to have a great combine of fellows, and you bought to have some veteran management.”
School basketball has gone by means of an old-man renaissance the previous 4 seasons. Scheyer advised me he did not plan on having six freshmen, however the rhythm of recruiting his top-ranked 2024 class led to a pile-up. Flagg and Khaman Maluach (the No. 4 participant within the Class of 2024) had been the final gamers to commit. In addition they occurred to be uber-talented frontcourt items. And no coach within the nation is popping down commitments from these two, regardless of who else is on the staff. So, six freshmen it’s. That led Scheyer to recruiting nothing however veterans within the portal after Duke’s NCAA regional ultimate loss to rival NC State prompted a handful of gamers from final season’s staff to switch.
“It was probably the most attention-grabbing April I’ve ever had,” stated Scheyer, “however I consider within the make-up of this group greater than I may even clarify.”
By any goal measure, Scheyer has handed the check by means of two seasons. His groups received 27 video games apiece, together with an ACC Event championship in 12 months 1 and an Elite Eight look as a No. 4 seed this previous March.
Flagg modifications the dynamic. Anticipation is one factor. The truth of all of it — the magnitude — will not be felt till the season begins, and even then, most likely not till Nov. 12 when No. 7 Duke performs No. 23 Kentucky within the Champions Traditional. How can Flagg put together for what awaits? He cannot. When your fame is as excessive as his and also you select to play in a Duke uniform and decide into all of that status, all of that spotlight, all of that expectation, these are the stuff you join. Flagg’s dad and mom, Kelly and Ralph, have inspired Scheyer and the Duke employees to educate up their son as aggressively as attainable. No fluff, no child gloves. For the household, there isn’t any assumption that Flagg is being promised something into subsequent week, not to mention subsequent June.
“They consider of their son, do not get me flawed, however in addition they know he is obtained quite a bit to work on they usually needed him to be in an surroundings the place he’d be pushed, to be coached, to be challenged, to be advised no,” Scheyer advised CBS Sports activities. “If you’re a 17-year-old child like Cooper and you’ve got the world at your fingertips, you are not advised no quite a bit. And so to be in an surroundings the place you might be advised no is essential.”
The final freshman with this a lot hype coming into faculty wasn’t even Zion. It is forgotten by some, however Williamson was ranked decrease as a highschool recruit than fellow teammates RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish. It wasn’t till after the 2018-19 season started when Zion Mania quickly unfold. The final time a freshman introduced this a lot anticipation heading into a season was most likely Kentucky’s Anthony Davis in 2011. Davis, like Flagg, was the No. 1 recruit in his class. Like Flagg, he was anomalously gifted as a shot-blocker and thus grew to become the defensive centerpiece on a nationwide championship staff. Flagg is sweet sufficient to do the identical.
“They sort of have one thing, loads of the identical intangibles, nice teammate, they join with all people — that is actually onerous to do,” Carrawell stated of the Zion/Cooper comparisons. “This dude is available in, he is been coachable. Zion was coachable. They arrive in with this, I would not say aura, however they did.”
“The factor that separates him, I feel, is his vitality and motor in a apply. He is the loudest one,” Carrawell added. “All the time leaping round and s—. It is like, it is this dude’s vitality, man, it is infectious. And so that you construct it round his expertise, however we sort of adjusted and we have been constructing round his intangibles. This dude hates to lose. He is hardly had a nasty apply — he has had a nasty apply — however he practices onerous and so our guys are feeding on that, and he most likely would not even know.”
Scheyer calls Flagg a “one-time man,” which means if he would not know one thing or hasn’t skilled it, he is good with most the whole lot as soon as he goes by means of it a primary time. A fast wrestle, a faster adjustment. However he nonetheless has about two months till he turns 18, so we’ll see if that applies to high-level Division I competitors. To be able to put together for the hardest video games of his life to date, he nonetheless has to listen to “no” quite a bit in between these apply traces.
“His perspective has been unbelievable. He would not care about consideration, he would not care concerning the hype,” Scheyer stated. “He would not care about something apart from being one of many guys. And so he has all people’s respect immediately due to how onerous he works. You may’t deny his potential, sufficient expertise and all that, however you possibly can’t deny his work ethic, and you’ll’t deny who he’s as a teammate. So to me, that is been probably the most spectacular half.”
There’s a particular plan in play as effectively. Flagg was not made out there to be interviewed for this story. Duke has communicated that Flagg is not going to be doing any one-on-one interviews with the media within the close to future. I used to be advised Flagg is attempting to mix in and “be one of many guys” as a lot as he can for so long as he can. He needs to be a part of a campus neighborhood and stay faculty life on this fertile interval … earlier than each minute of each sport he performs is tracked and audited. The normalcy he seeks may dissolve as quickly as he supplies his first draft-reel spotlight or MVP-type efficiency.
Whether or not that method winds up making a distinction in Flagg’s adaptability to school basketball, no one is aware of. Scheyer is aware of there’s solely a lot you possibly can rehearse for.
“It doesn’t matter what, he is gonna must undergo a few of this, he is gonna must get into a few of these moments and simply really feel it,” Scheyer stated. “There’s gonna be bumps, little doubt, however I feel his potential to maneuver on is at a excessive stage.”
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“It is a uncommon few gamers the place you simply sort of allow them to be,” Duke assistant Jai Lucas stated. “He simply has a capability to simply, you place him on the ground, he is gonna make one thing occur. However the one factor to recollect is he is nonetheless 17, so it is nonetheless loads of stuff that is going to come back with 17, he’s going to wrestle this 12 months. It isn’t going to be an ideal 12 months. He will be actually good, however he additionally goes to have some struggles simply due to age … and he is not Zion, the place he is simply bodily imposing.”
Watching Duke apply, Flagg was onerous to not observe over the course of two-plus hours. His vitality was constant, his stamina pretty much as good if not higher than anybody on the staff, and his involvement — verbally, particularly — was conspicuous. He seems like a freshman by way of muscle tone and look, however his work ethic and basketball IQ outpace his age.
“I feel the very best factor we are able to do is simply make it as onerous as attainable for him within the preseason and push him, problem him — and he needs all that, “Scheyer stated. “So it really works rather well, having the ability to have some veterans, having the ability to have Sion James guard him in apply, Maliq Brown, these sorts of our bodies that he will go towards, the place you modify as shortly as you possibly can the preseason, regardless that, it doesn’t matter what, there’s going to be a progress course of you undergo when the season begins.”
Flagg could possibly be Zion-esque … or he could possibly be only a fairly good freshman on a talent-laden Duke staff that could possibly be as reliant on junior level guard Tyrese Proctor as a lot as Flagg or every other participant. It isn’t as buzzy of a speaking level, however in watching Duke’s staff dynamic in apply, Proctor’s play might be going to be the barometer for Duke’s consistency.
“He is a key man, no query,” Scheyer stated. “And his development is simply doing it on a regular basis. You understand, he is proven flashes of doing it. Now it is time, as a junior, the place the aggressive spirit that he is aware of that he must tackle each play, each play throughout the play.”
Scheyer advised me he threw Proctor “into the deep finish” as a freshman. It is altered his path, however maybe in the end for the higher. To his credit score, he did not decide to switch and did not search for a neater manner out after a bumpy sophomore 12 months. Because the oldest steady contributor on Duke’s roster, Duke’s employees believes Proctor’s play is as essential as anybody else, if no more so.
Scheyer stated simplifying the sport needs to be the important thing to Proctor’s ascendence in his third season. He needs him to hunt his shot and be dialed in all the way in which on his man-to-man lockdown protection. Set a tone for the staff in how he competes.
“As a substitute of attempting to be good at 10 various things, let’s be killer in these three areas, and be that manner on a regular basis. And I feel we’ll see a giant, massive bounce with him,” Scheyer stated. “We’ll have an amazing 12 months if he does these issues.”
The early indicators are encouraging. Freshman Kon Knueppel is getting rave critiques from NBA scouts who’ve watched Duke. Maluach is uncooked however his physicality and high-end defensive ceiling is unbelievable. Foster is nearing 100% well being. Sion James and Maliq Brown are going to make sure Duke is greater and extra bodily this 12 months. There’s loads of tantalizing potential.
“Been loads of noise within the health club,” Carrawell stated. “These guys carry voices, with even the younger guys. … A distinct vitality within the health club.”
Duke’s protection could possibly be top-10 within the nation if the staff is wholesome and the whole lot clicks. However with so many freshmen, this staff stays an enormous wait-and-see. It is why Scheyer’s group wasn’t given the good thing about the doubt this October the way in which it was a 12 months in the past, when Duke was the No. 2 staff within the preseason. Right here, it is No. 7. Removed from being disrespected, however nonetheless not a top-tier title favourite heading in with a markedly totally different roster from simply seven months in the past.
“I do know I’ve 10 actually good gamers, and a few are on totally different timelines,” Scheyer stated. “We have to coach them instantly with a tremendous sense of urgency to win.”
Urgency is the phrase in Durham, partially as a result of half of this roster may not be taking part in for Duke a 12 months from now, simply because it was with final season’s staff. If you’ve obtained the good fortune and glamour of Cooper Flagg, there is not a day or a apply or a pickup sport to waste. Scheyer has dealt with one of many hardest jobs in sports activities effectively by means of greater than two years of holding it. Now, a unique sort of tour awaits. This feels larger, extra consequential, prefer it’s the primary main chapter of Scheyer’s teaching life. The 2024-25 season goes to offer extra potential, strain and risk at Duke than anyplace else.