Jon Scheyer had just taken over for his mentor, Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski, and he wanted to make sure his team was as prepared as possible for his first season as Duke’s coach.
So he scheduled a “secret” scrimmage against the toughest team he could think of.
Houston. On the road.
It didn’t go well.
Playing without eventual first-round NBA Draft picks Dereck Lively and Dariq Whitehead, who were sidelined with injuries, the Blue Devils shot just 36.6 percent from the floor and were 2-of-17 from three-point range in a 61-50 loss in late October 2022.
“I just believed Houston would be the toughest test,” Scheyer said during Thursday’s Final Four media day in San Antonio. “They’re the toughest test because of their coach. Their coach (Kelvin Sampson) is as good as it gets in college basketball. I just admired from afar the way they defended, how they were building their culture. We had such a new group. I wanted our guys to be exposed at the highest level, and we were.”
Saturday, Scheyer’s Blue Devils and Sampson’s Cougars will meet again. In Texas. This time, though, it’ll be on college basketball’s biggest stage.
Their matchup in Saturday’s second national semifinal represents a full-circle moment for Scheyer and his program. And the intensity with which Houston plays defense won’t be the only flashback to that secret scrimmage.
Three Cougars who played in that game – 6-foot-3 junior guard Emanuel Sharp, 6-foot-8 senior forward J’Wan Roberts and 6-foot-6 sophomore forward Terrence Arceneaux – are still with the team. Blue Devils guard Tyrese Proctor, a 6-foot-6 junior, also played in that scrimmage. But the memory of his introduction to college basketball isn’t something he looks back on fondly.
He finished with two points and two rebounds, and admitted that he “got his (butt) kicked” by Houston. While Proctor would just as soon forget that performance, Scheyer said it’s a learning experience that helped shape him into the player he has become.
From his beginnings as an inconsistent teen who graduated high school a year early in Australia, Proctor has evolved into a confident, veteran leader who has become a steadying influence for the Blue Devils’ current five-star freshman core.
“Tyrese came in as a boy,” Scheyer said. “You throw him into the fire against Houston, it was probably the worst and the best thing we could have done.”
Proctor is averaging 12.5 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists while shooting a career-best 41.2 percent from beyond the three-point arc this season. But he has been even better in the NCAA Tournament. He is scoring at a 17-point-per-game clip while going 16-of-25 from three-point range (64.0 percent) to provide an effective complement to 6-foot-9 freshman star Cooper Flagg.
As important as his offensive contributions have been, his perimeter defense – which helped limit Alabama star Mark Sears to six points on 2-of-12 shooting – has been an even more important asset.
“He’s as good of a two-way guard, to me, as there is in college,” Sheyer said of Proctor. “What he does on the defensive end, how he’s been ready to shoot, his playmaking, toughness – he’s just become a complete guard.
“To become that, you have to go through some moments like that day at Houston. For him just going through those moments, he’s become even tougher and better.”
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But Proctor isn’t the only one who learned the value of toughness from the Cougars. Scheyer did, too.
“I think we got punched in the face many times that day,” he said of that scrimmage. “We punched back, though. I thought we had a great gauge for how our team was and how we could move forward. We also learned this is what it looks like to have a big-time team and culture.”
After his first two Duke teams were criticized for being soft, Scheyer made it a priority to construct this team with a harder edge. Freshmen stars Flagg and Kon Knueppel, a 6-foot-7 wing, are fierce competitors, and transfer additions Sion James (a 6-foot-6 senior), Mason Gillis (a 6-foot-6 senior) and Maliq Brown (a 6-foot-9 junior) are strong, physically mature players who aren’t afraid to throw their bodies around.
The Blue Devils are going to need that Saturday in what promises to be a gritty, physical “rematch” with the Cougars.
