New Legacy Begins: Jon Scheyer Leads Duke Back to Final Four

In 1978, gas was 63 cents a gallon, the film Grease was released, the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever was the best-selling album, and Jimmy Carter was president. It was also the last time Duke reached the Final Four without Mike Krzyzewski as its head coach … until now.In those 47 years, Mr. Krzyzewski coached the Blue Devils to 13 Final Fours and five national championships before retiring in 2022, leaving enormous shoes to fill. Three years later, his successor and former player Jon Scheyer has Duke back in the Final Four with a chance to start his coaching legacy.‘You feel a great deal of responsibility to be the head coach at Duke,” Mr. Scheyer said from San Antonio, where four no.1 seeds — Duke, Houston, Florida, and Auburn — will decide the national championship this weekend. “The Final Four is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. To be part of this, being my fourth Final Four, obviously my first as a head coach, if you’re around great people, you’re at a great place, it’s something I’ll never take for granted.”Bill Foster coached Duke to the Final Four in 1978, where the Blue Devils lost to Kentucky in the championship game. Two years later, Mr. Krzyzewski was named Duke’s head coach. He reached his first Final Four in 1988 and won the first of back-to-back national championships in 1991. He retired as the winningest coach in men’s NCAA Tournament history with a 100-30 record.Mr. Scheyer contributed to that legacy as a player from 2006 to 2010, capturing the national championship in his final year, and then serving as a full-time assistant coach starting in 2014. He was named Duke’s next head coach before Mr. Krzyzewski’s final season in Durham.After going 27-9 his first two seasons and reaching the Elite Eight last year, Mr. Scheyer has the Blue Devils back in the Final Four.“I feel we belong here,” Mr. Scheyer said. “I feel this is what we’ve worked for. There’s that combination of amazing pride, wanting to soak it in, but then the incredible hunger and understanding what a challenge this is going to be.”The Blue Devils (35-3) face Houston (34-4) in one semifinal Saturday after Auburn (32-5) takes on Florida (34-4). The winners meet for the national championship on Monday. It’s the first time since 2008 and only the second time ever all four no.1 seeds have reached the Final Four.Duke is the betting favorite to win the title thanks mainly to the presence of freshman sensation Cooper Flagg, the Associated Press College Player of the Year. The 6-9 forward from Newport, Maine, led the Blue Devils in scoring (18.9 points per game), rebounds (7.5), assists (4.2), and steals (1.4).“I hold myself to a high standard, high expectations,” Flagg told the AP. “Just because I know how much work I’ve put in and how many hours I’ve spent grinding and putting that work in. It’s those expectations of just trusting what you do and just doing it to the highest levels.”The Blue Devils, who average 83.7 points per game, will face the best defensive team in the nation in Houston, which allows just 58.3 points a game. It’s the first time since 1969 that the highest-scoring offense in the tournament will play against the team allowing the fewest points.“I know firsthand after playing them last year, and scrimmaging them the year before, we know very well how legit their defense is and their physicality and all that,” Mr. Scheyer said. “Let’s be us and let’s not be on our heels. I think that’s an important thing when you play them because they’re terrific.”Mr. Scheyer has a big fan in Houston coach Kelvin Sampson. “I’ll tell you how good Jon Scheyer has been,” Mr. Sampson said. “Nobody talks about him replacing Coach K anymore. He’s Jon Scheyer. He’s got his team in the Final Four. I think that speaks volumes.”Mr. Krzyzewski, who hasn’t been around the Duke program much since his retirement, said he plans on being in San Antonio on Saturday. “I’ve tried to stay out of it publicly just to give our program a chance to keep moving in its direction,” he said. “But I want to be there with Scheyer. Look, I want Duke to win, so I want to be there in support of them.”

New Legacy Begins: Jon Scheyer Leads Duke Back to Final Four

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