How Duke coach Jon Scheyer approaches rivalry basketball game with UNC
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Scheyer emphasizes this year’s group over last season’s achievements.
- No. 4 Duke (21-1, 10-0 ACC) seeks fourth straight win at Chapel Hill Saturday.
- Scheyer urges players to see the rivalry’s noise as opportunity, not distraction.
As a freshman guard at Duke, Jon Scheyer’s first experience with the North Carolina rivalry wasn’t the best. The Blue Devils lost, home and away.
As a “freshman” head coach at Duke, it began with a pair of wins, home and away.
Scheyer and the No. 4 Blue Devils will go to Chapel Hill on Saturday to face the No. 14 Tar Heels, seeking a fourth straight victory over their biggest rivals. They won three times last season, beating the Heels in the ACC Tournament on their way to the championship.
Scheyer, in a Thursday press conference, downplayed last year’s sweep as best he could.
“Any time you’ve had success, it makes the other person want it even more,” Scheyer said. “For us, it’s completely about this year’s group.”
This year’s group being a Blue Devil team that’s ranked No. 4 nationally, that’s 21-1 and 10-0 in the ACC, with the only loss this season by one point to Texas Tech in December.
“The funny thing is I think this team has developed better than I could have imagined from where we were in the fall,” Scheyer said. “I think this team has really grown and come a long way.
“Where we are now is not the finished product, either.”
Playing and coaching in the rivalry
Scheyer, like UNC coach Hubert Davis, played and now are coaching at their alma maters. Scheyer, in turn, said he felt more weight on his shoulders in 2022-23, his first as Duke’s head coach than when he laced up the sneakers to play UNC for the first time in 2007.
“My first one was at home. We lost a close game, really tough one,” Scheyer said Thursday. “I played really well. I just always enjoyed being in those moments.”
For the record, Scheyer had 26 points in his first Duke-Carolina game as the Blue Devils lost, 79-73, at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Feb. 7, 2007.
“For me, it was different because I grew up watching all those Duke-UNC games all the time,” Scheyer said. “I wouldn’t miss a game. If I did miss it for some reason, my dad would record it on VHS and we’d rewind it.
“That’s how I watched Chris Duhon making a layup and all those moments that I had growing up. So I was ready. That’s what I dreamt of.”
As a coach, it’s a lot different walking onto to the court at the Smith Center behind Mike Krzyzewski as a Duke assistant coach than being the head guy leading his team out and making the calls, with millions watching.
“I felt the responsibility even more than as a player,” Scheyer said Thursday. “At the same time you appreciate the attention. I never run from that. You have to appreciate that as a coach at Duke.”
Taking over the big chair for the big game
Scheyer’s first Duke-Carolina game as head coach came Feb 4, 2023, at Cameron. Duke came away with a 63-57 victory as Jeremy Roach had a 20-point game and Dereck Lively II had 14 rebounds.
In the game at UNC to close out the regular season, the Devils won 62-57 behind Kyle Filipowski’s 22 points and 13 boards.
Filipowski and Lively were freshmen that season, along with Tyrese Proctor and Mark Mitchell. This season, it will freshmen Cameron and Cayden Boozer getting their first on-court taste of the Duke Carolina rivalry. So, too, freshmen Dame Sarr and Nikolas Khamenia.
The Smith Center will be teeming, loud, uninviting. ESPN’s College GameDay people will be there. It again will be a Duke-Carolina game with all the trimmings.
So much will be made of Cameron Boozer and UNC’s Caleb Wilson, both so skilled and talented and each with the potential to the national player of the season.
“There’s no denying the fact that when you think about the success of both of these programs ... and what this game stands for in college basketball, I think people would be jealous in what this game means,” Scheyer said. “But ultimately, it’s a helluva thing to be a part of.”
Scheyer’s advice to his team?
“I want them to understand that, God willing, you can play more games going forward where people care and that there’s the spotlight and there’s noise and there’s attention,” he said. “And what comes with that is amazing opportunity.
“I don’t try to diminish the fact that the noise is great, the attention is great. This is what you wanted. This is the good part in all this.”
As a player and a coach.
This story was originally published February 5, 2026 at 3:53 PM.
