For Duke coach Jon Scheyer, how a loss at NC State set a future course
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Scheyer used a Jan. 2023 NC State blowout loss as a learning pivot.
- Duke doubled down on internal talent, building a balanced, No. 1 team.
- Program consistency: Duke has won 37 of its last 39 ACC games.
The game, and the moment, are etched into Jon Scheyer’s mind and will never entirely be erased.
Scheyer was in his first season as Duke’s head coach, having taken over from the retired Mike Krzyzewski, his former coach and mentor and the architect of five national championships.
The Blue Devils were playing at N.C. State in early January 2023, in what then was PNC Arena. The Pack scored the first 10 points of the game. Then, it was 15-0. Scheyer had used one timeout by then and darted down the sideline to call another when the score reached 22-4.
At that point, Duke had missed 14 of 15 shots. Seven had been blocked. The Devils also had seven turnovers. It was that bad.
What to do? Scheyer was the man picked to succeed The Man. It was his team. It was his staff. It all rested on him. There was no speed-dialing Coach K for advice. There were no good answers for Duke that game. Pack led 44-22 at the half and took an 84-60 victory.
Scheyer reflected on that this week when asked how he had evolved as a head coach.
“You learn the most when you get your (butt) handed to you,” he said.
An early nadir for Scheyer, Duke
The Blue Devils, in his first year, that already had taken a 75-56 loss to Purdue and soon-to-be All-America Zach Edey – ”Edey before he was Edey,” Scheyer said of the 7-4 center.
But the loss to N.C. State, then coached by Kevin Keatts, came in a conference game, against a Big Four rival. The arena was loud and Wolfpack fans were relentless in letting Scheyer and the Blue Devils, then ranked 16th, know they were being humbled.
“I think of that first year of really being tested,” Scheyer said of the 2022-23 season. Such as the N.C. State game?
“Not a good moment,” he said.
Scheyer may think back to that day on Monday when the No. 1 Blue Devils go to N.C. State for a quick turnaround game. Duke clinched the top seed in the 2026 ACC Tournament on Saturday by hammering No. 11 Virginia, 77-51, at Cameron Indoor Stadium, and the Devils can clinch a second straight ACC regular-season title with a win at the Lenovo Center.
Duke was 2-2 in the ACC his first year after the loss to the Pack, but it would finish third in the league with a 14-6 record and then win the ACC championship. Tennessee knocked Duke out of the NCAA Tournament in the second round, but Duke’s final record was 27-9 and it was No. 12 in the final AP poll.
“The evolution for me is in learning from the things you didn’t do as well and learning from the things you really do well, and continuing to build on that,” Scheyer said.
Duke won at N.C. State the next season, only to have the Pack upset the Devils in the 2024 ACC tournament quarterfinals and then in the NCAA Tournament’s South Region championship game at Dallas.
Now, Scheyer’s Blue Devils are dominant
The Blue Devils were loaded last season with five players soon to be headed to the NBA, Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel among them. The talent gap with the rest of the ACC was reflected in Duke’s 19-1 record – the loss at Clemson – that earned them Scheyer’s first ACC regular-season title. Duke again won the ACC tournament and reached the Final Four before a gutting loss to Houston in the national semifinals.
But some observers believe Scheyer’s fourth head coaching season has been his best. Yes, the Blue Devils have freshman forward Cameron Boozer, arguably the best player in the country. But Scheyer and his staff have molded together a team now ranked No. 1 that shares the ball on offense and never rests on defense.
“Jon’s team is well-balanced,” first-year Virginia coach Ryan Odom said Saturday. “They know who they are offense. They know who they are on defense. They’re a typical tough-minded Duke basketball team that’s going to rebound and pressure the ball and get up in your grill.”
Scheyer said Saturday that he and his staff were “incredibly determined” to match or better all that the Blue Devils, whose last NCAA title came in 2015, accomplished last season. Scheyer and the staff also had some choices to make.
“You can go about it two different ways,” he said. “You can double down on the guys who have been in your program and the guys who are committed to you, or you can look elsewhere. I think the best decision we made … is doubling down on the players we had in our program.”
Caleb Foster, a junior, and sophomores Isaiah Evans, Patrick Ngongba, Darren Harris have all done their part. Boozer and his twin brother, Cayden, have fit seamlessly into the group along with freshmen Dame Sarr and Nikolas Khamenia.
“These guys have just put their heads down and thrown themselves into the work,” Scheyer said. “They’ve grown as much as any team I’ve coached.”
And think of this: Duke has won 37 of its last 39 ACC games under Scheyer, including 18 straight at Cameron. That’s Coach K-like, many would say.
“He’s done a great job since he took over,” Odom said. “There’s no more pressure situation than what he’s been thrust into. He and his staff have done a fabulous job of following a legend.”
Odom could be named ACC coach of the year after what he has accomplished in his first season at UVa. Jai Lucas has done a good job with the Miami program. Scheyer, too, will get votes.
“I don’t think coach Scheyer and the staff get the flowers they deserve, because it’s Duke,” senior forward Maliq Brown said Saturday. “Getting another group like this after last year is incredible. We’re a great team doing the same thing we did last year. We’re in the same spot right now.”
That huge loss to N.C. State three years ago? That now seems so far away, although not to be forgotten by the man on the Duke bench who learned from it.
This story was originally published March 1, 2026 at 6:05 AM.
