Duke basketball coach Jon Scheyer missed his team’s win at SMU. Will he coach vs. Pitt?
After a one-game absence, Jon Scheyer has returned to health — and his coaching duties — and is set to be on the sidelines for No. 4 Duke’s home basketball game with Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.
Flu symptoms prevented Scheyer from traveling with the Blue Devils to Dallas over the weekend, when they hammered SMU, 89-62, on Saturday. Associate head coach Chris Carrawell handled the head coaching role for that game.
But Scheyer said Monday he’ll coach against Pitt.
The SMU game is the first game Scheyer, who is in his third season as Duke’s head coach, missed since taking over the program following Mike Krzyzewski’s retirement in 2022. He never missed a game during his Duke playing career from 2006-10, when he appeared in 144 games.
Watching on TV rather than coaching his team was odd for him.
“It was a bizarre, bizarre experience,” Scheyer said. “I felt horrible, but I felt very confident in the decision we made right before the game, just because I had so much trust in our staff and our players, felt we were prepared the game plan was in.”
Duke (12-2, 4-0 ACC) carries an eight-game winning streak into Tuesday night’s 7 p.m. game with Pitt (12-2, 3-0 ACC). Coached by former Duke player and assistant coach Jeff Capel, the Panthers join Duke and Clemson (12-3, 4-0 ACC) as the only teams still unbeaten in league play.
While he doesn’t want to do it again, Scheyer said he did learn different things about his team watching from afar rather than from the bench.
“It was an amazing experience though,” Scheyer said. “When you separate yourself or take a step back, you’re able just to see things differently because you’re not in a decision making mode. I’m in decision making mode all the time. And so it allows you just to see the team where we’re at. It was amazing how locked in and in sync we all were. As I’m watching, it was just seamless. I thought our toughness stood out.”