Duke head coach Jon Scheyer agrees to 6-year extension before 2nd season
Scheyer guided the Blue Devils to the ACC Tournament championship and second round of the NCAA tournament last season
Duke apparently liked what it saw from Jon Scheyer's first season as its men's basketball head coach.
Scheyer has agreed to a six-year contract extension with the Blue Devils that will take him through the 2028-29 season, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Duke appeared to confirm the news on social media.
The news comes four days after Duke was voted the No. 2 team in college basketball entering the season, ranked behind only Kansas. Duke is scheduled to begin its season against Dartmouth on Nov. 6.
Scheyer, a three-year starter and senior captain as a player at Duke under Mike Krzyzewski, replaced the longtime coach last season after eight seasons as his assistant coach. The results were solid in Year 1, with Duke going 27-9, finishing fourth in the ACC and winning the conference tournament. A loss to Tennessee in the Round of 32 left the team ranked No. 18 in the final coaches poll.
Two members of that team heard their names called in the subsequent NBA Draft, including No. 12 pick Dereck Lively II and No. 22 Dariq Whitehead.
More encouraging have been Scheyer's results on the recruiting trail, where Duke hasn't missed a step since Krzyzewski's retirement. Scheyer entered last season with the No. 1 class in the country, per Rivals, and went back-to-back with this year's top class as well, boasting four five-star recruits in forwards T.J. Power and Sean Stewart and guards Jared McCain and Caleb Foster.
Duke currently ranks fifth in the country for the class of 2024, but are favored to land No. 1 recruit Cooper Flagg. They could also have the inside track on Cameron Boozer, son of Duke alumnus Carlos Boozer and one of the elite players in the Class of 2025.
Replacing Krzyzewski was never going to be easy, but Scheyer has so far seemed to keep Duke on the right track. The question for him now will be the same one that faced Krzyzewski in his later years, whether or not he will be able to convert a treasure trove of five-star recruits into a national champion.
