Jon Scheyer wasn’t naïve to the challenge of being the guy after guy.
When he learned four years ago that Duke was considering him as a potential successor to the retiring Mike Krzyzewski, Scheyer studied the grim history of coaches who have tried to follow a legend.
“I did my homework,” Scheyer said Saturday. “Very rarely do people succeed.”
To say that Scheyer has been the exception to that rule is the ultimate understatement. Scheyer isn’t just handling the pressure of coaching in the considerable shadow of Krzyzewski. He is authoring one of college basketball’s smoothest and most successful transitions from coaching icon to hand-picked successor.
Scheyer crossed one more major milestone off his to-do list Saturday night, guiding Duke to its first Final Four appearance in his three seasons as head coach. The top-seeded Blue Devils booked their ticket to San Antonio with an 85-65 demolition of dangerous Alabama in the East regional title game.
The impossibly long, athletic roster that Scheyer assembled stifled an Alabama offense that two nights earlier against BYU drained 25 3s and piled up 113 points. The Blue Devils stormed to an early double-digit lead, kept second-seeded Alabama at arm’s length for most of the game and then late in the second half connected with a vicious knockout punch.
Out-scheming Nate Oats on an NCAA tournament stage further validates Scheyer as the ideal choice to take over for Krzyzewski. He improved to 89-21 as Duke’s head coach and moved within two wins of joining Bob Knight and Dean Smith as the only men to win a national title as both a player and as a head coach.
At other schools who have recently replaced a legend, the transition has been much bumpier. Villanova has already fired Jay Wright’s successor, moving on from Kyle Neptune after three straight seasons without sniffing an NCAA tournament bid. Syracuse had to give Adrian Autry a vote of confidence earlier this month after two dreadful seasons trying to follow Jim Boeheim.
Even Hubert Davis has endured more downs than ups since taking North Carolina from a No. 8 seed to the 2022 national title game. The Tar Heels became the first preseason No. 1 team to fail to make the NCAA tournament in 2023 and then came up short of an NCAA bid once again this season.
