How Jon Scheyer’s Unconventional Approach Is Transforming Duke Basketball Overnight

As portal season begins to settle down a bit, something we predicted a few years ago is increasingly evident: some coaches really know what to do in portal season – which we might as well call roster building season – and some don’t.

Guys like Jerome Tang, Scott Drew, Hubert Davis, and Mark Pope have struggled. On the other hand, coaches like Dan Hurley, Todd Golden, and Jon Scheyer have cracked it. And Scheyer’s model has proven really interesting.

On the one hand, he continues to recruit high school talent at a very elite level. And while guys like Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel and Cameron Boozer leave after a year, others, like Isaiah Evans, Tyrese Proctor, Dame Sarr and Pat Ngongba stick around longer.

Scheyer has taken the players he retains and the freshmen he brings in, and just added in strategic portal pieces around them.

In 2023, he brought in unknown Ryan Young from Northwestern, who turned out to be a brilliant addition. In 2024, he brought in Maliq Brown, Sion James, and Mason Gillis.

This past season, Scheyer brought in Jack Scott and Iffy Ufochukwu, and so far this month, he added Belmont’s Drew Scharnowski, and Wisconsin’s John Blackwell.

All of these guys have had or will have different roles. Some will play more than others, as we’ve seen with Young, Brown and James.

But unlike Tang and Pope, Scheyer isn’t just flashing a bankroll and targeting high-end talent. He’s complementing a group that’s already very good. Duke needed a frontcourt defender, and got one in Scharnowski. Duke needed a reliable offensive presence. They got one in Blackwell.

To be clear, being at Duke has a lot of advantages for a coach. You can compete with anyone financially, and you have other things to sell that are also valuable. We don’t know the specifics, but we’re pretty sure that GM Rachel Baker is capable of putting together some very alluring deals for players, and while brand recognition alone won’t get you drafted, it doesn’t hurt. Ask James about that.

That said, Kentucky hasn’t done what Duke’s done. Neither has UNC. Kansas is nowhere in sight. What Scheyer has done, both what we see and what is behind the scenes, is pretty incredible. As much as anyone, he’s reinventing college basketball.

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