The Latest Duke Blue Planet Showcases Jon Scheyer’s Evolution

The young coach is making a shift towards a culture of accountability

The past two summers, we’ve scoured clips posted by Duke’s social media team to gain a glimpse into Jon Scheyer’s coaching style. Last year, the way Scheyer built up Jared McCain’s confidence during the summer caught fans attention, and clearly paid dividends during the year.

This offseason has brought a new keyword to the program: competitiveness. Creating a culture of competitiveness has been emphasized by the coaching staff all summer, perhaps best illustrated by the staff targeting transfers and freshmen who were ready to compete for a role rather than have it promised to them.

That’s all just empty words until it’s put into practice, though. And in the latest Duke Blue Planet episode, fans are getting a glimpse into how Duke’s head coach is evolving his own style to match the culture he wants out of his players.

Walk through the sequence of events that begins at around the 16 minute mark of the episode. Scheyer emphasizes to his team to take full advantage of Khaman Maluach by getting him lobs when he cuts to the rim. A moment later, Caleb Foster, notably one of only two returning contributors from last year’s team, misses an opportunity to do just that. Scheyer, visibly frustrated in conversation with Director of Player Development Justin Robinson, immediately calls out Foster. “I just said it, right?” he says.

Moments later, Scheyer blows the whistle again during a drill. “He’s open!” he says. “It’s a lob. Look, he’s 7-2. As soon as he gets a step, it’s got to go up.” He even adds in a Coach K-esque expletive to emphasize his point.

How does the footage finish (admittedly with some likely help from the edit)? With Kon Knueppel putting up a nice lob to Maluach, who finishes a potential and-one.

That attitude is a departure from the past two seasons, where glimpses into practice showcased a coach with a clearly softer approach from his legendary predecessor. The Scheyer that the social media team wanted fans (and recruits) to see was a players’ coach.

Now? That Scheyer is still there, but with an edge. He’s not hesitating to call out one of his returners when he makes a mistake. He’s not willing to let the emphasis of a given practice go. In short, he’s holding all his players accountable.

That is a perfect coaching complement to a culture of competitiveness from the players. If that glimpse is truly indicative of how Scheyer is evolving in his third year at the helm, it appears much of the talk of the offseason may be coming to fruition.