Will Jon Scheyer's approach to recruiting differ from Coach K's?
Jon Scheyer has already secured most of his 2023 recruiting class, landing Duke more than one junior for the first time in more than a decade.
The Jon Scheyer era has begun in earnest.
April 3, 2022 marked the official day of Duke’s changing of the guard. Everything within the Duke basketball program is now under his purview.
Since that day, Scheyer has had quite a busy go at it. He’s picked up two commitments for the class of 2023. He lost his close friend and assistant coach Nolan Smith to ACC foe Louisville. He hired former Elon University head coach Mike Schrage as an assistant and replaced Smith with Amile Jefferson.
Now he must fill Jefferson’s role within the Duke staff.
That’s a pretty busy first nine days on the job.
Scheyer, though, was the acting head coach long before April 3 — at least that’s true when it comes to recruiting. The moment Mike Krzyzewski announced his retirement in June of 2021 and Scheyer was named as his successor, recruiting duties fell on the shoulders of the former associate head coach.
He was no longer recruiting as an assistant, he was the lead man. He made the decisions. He zeroed in on his top targets. Sure Krzyzewski played a role in the recruiting process when prospects made their way to campus for visits, but this was Scheyer’s show.
And he’s succeeded in an eye-popping way. If there were ever concerns last summer of Duke’s ability to recruit in the post-Coach K era, then Scheyer put all of them to rest rather quickly. Since taking over as head coach — at least in recruiting terms — Scheyer has landed 11 of the nation’s top prospects in the classes of 2022 and 2023.
In fact, with five commitments for 2023, Scheyer has nearly locked up his entire freshman classes for the next two seasons. No other program has more than two commitments or one five-star pledge. Of Scheyer’s five for the class, four are five-stars.
That got us thinking.
Are there differences in how Scheyer approaches recruiting? If so, are there significant differences? Are their similarities in Scheyer’s strategy with that of Krzyzewski’s prior to the one and done era? Is it important for Scheyer to be a class ahead in the recruiting process?