CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Mike Krzyzewski took Duke to four Final Fours before finally getting over the hump and winning the first of his five national championships in 1991. So in that respect, Jon Scheyer is in good company when it comes to his NCAA Tournament record as coach.
That doesn’t make the disappointment of two epic March meltdowns any easier to digest for Coach K’s hand-picked successor.
Scheyer has shouldered his share of criticism for his team’s performance down the stretch in a national semifinal loss to Houston in 2025 and last season’s Elite Eight heartbreak against UConn. Much of it deserved. But rather than dwelling on the negative aspects of the painful results, Scheyer has looked inward in search of ways to learn from his mistakes and eventually get over the hump the way his mentor finally did.
“Sometimes winning can disguise some of the changes that are necessary,” Scheyer said Wednesday at the ACC’s preseason basketball media event. “So I guess the silver lining, if there’s any, it’s that it allows you to think critically about the improvements and changes that need to be made first and foremost with the roster and second, anything with the team connection-wise, stylistically, how you’re going to play and how to win another possession.”
Winning that one final possession would have made a huge difference in both those season-ending losses to Houston and UConn, games that will be remembered for the double-digit leads Duke squandered with less than 10 minutes remaining.
If there’s one regret Scheyer has about either of the defeats, it’s that his team lost its aggressiveness when it mattered most and began playing to hold onto its lead rather than expanding on it as the final minutes ticked off the clock.
As much as that defeat continues to haunt Duke, it’s the memory of a much-less competitive Elite Eight loss to NC State in 2024 that’s had an even more profound effect on the way Scheyer goes about his business heading into his fifth season as the Blue Devils’ head coach.
“Three years ago, we lose in the Elite Eight,” Scheyer said. “In that moment, if we win that game and go to the Final Four, you probably don’t make some of the decisions we made in the spring knowing what needed to change.”
The biggest change Scheyer made was in his approach to roster construction. Rather than loading his lineup with five-star freshman studs as if he were drafting a fantasy team, he paid greater attention to filling roles with players that fit better together.
The Blue Devils still have their share of McDonald’s All-Americans. Following in the footsteps of Cooper Flagg and Cameron Boozer, the past two National Player of the Year winners, is a current crop of rookie stars highlighted by future NBA Draft picks Deron Rippey Jr, Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje and Cameron Williams.
What’s different is the kind of players Scheyer has plucked from the transfer portal to surround them.
“You get to a point where guys want to have a starring role and you have to make a decision and be honest that you want them, but this is what their role is going to be,” Scheyer said. “We had seven guys transfer (in 2024). And we found a guy in Sion James who wasn’t near the top of anybody’s portal list because his numbers didn’t jump off the page. But we felt he would be the No. 1 guy to impact winning. Malik Brown the same way.
“It gave us a chance to build a roster that blended well together. The things we prioritized that year – size, skill, competitiveness and IQ – is what has stuck with us every step of the way ever since.”
This year’s transfer additions, specifically 6-foot-5 guard John Blackwell from Wisconsin and 6-foot-10 forward Drew Scharnowski from Belmont, fit the profile. They’re veteran players willing to sacrifice the kind of minutes and stats that might have been available elsewhere to play vital roles off the bench for a team with national championship aspirations.
And those aspirations are stronger than ever after the disappointments of the past two seasons, especially for those returners who lived through them.
“We definitely try to use those experiences to learn from and try not to make the mistakes that we made,” junior center Patrick Ngomba said.
Ngomba and fellow holdovers Caleb Foster, Cayden Boozer and Dame Sarr are much more focused on the opportunities that still lie ahead, not those that have already slipped away.
“It serves as motivation for sure, because we want to win a national championship,” Sarr said. “We know we lost in a bad way last year, but at the same time we had 35 wins and did a lot of great things. I’m just excited to have a chance to play for Duke. Hopefully this time we can win.”
No one would relish such an opportunity more than Scheyer.
“If you can tell me the next season if we have a chance to win every single game we play in the final 30 seconds, you’d take that every time,” he said. “Now you just have to capitalize on it as well.”
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