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?
These are all questions that Clint Jackson and I have considered and taken a look at. There are certainly some similarities, but are their differences and to what degree? Jackson believes they are not too different in how they attack the recruiting process.
At least he doesn’t when it comes to the type of player Scheyer is recruiting.
“I don’t,” Jackson said when asked if he believes if there are major differences. “He seems to be moving forward with the same plan of heavily recruiting and locking up the elite, one-and-done, business plan guys. I believe he sees the path as K did, with a versatile team, stocked with long forwards with guard skills, shooters with size and a dynamic point.”
This is certainly a fair assessment. In the class of 2022 alone, Scheyer earned commitments from a load of versatile players — Dariq Whitehead, Mark Mitchell, Kyle Filipowski, Dereck Lively II and Jaden Schutt all fit into that mold. The only missing piece is a point guard, though Duke expects Jeremy Roach to return for his junior season.
To be fair, though, while Scheyer closed the deal in spite of Krzyzewski’s announcement to retire, Duke’s hall of fame former coach was involved in the early stages for many of these guys. His imprint still exists with this class — at least when it comes to identifying the prospects.
It’s the 2023 class that is Scheyer’s and his alone. This class, too, follows the mold Jackson speaks of and is probably a good indicator of how he will approach the next few years.
There are some interesting components, though. There are the one-and-done targets Jackson mentions, but there is an approach that harkens back to before Krzyzewski placed his focus on the one-and-done players.
Scheyer, like Krzyzewski did during that time, appears to be placing an even stronger emphasis on the defensive end of the court. That’s not to say Krzyzewski did not look for players with quality defensive tools during the one-and-done period — he clearly has as we’ve seen with the likes of Tre Jones, Wendell Moore Jr., Jordan Goldwire and others.
This aspect just seems to be more of a philosophical plan of attack.
“Lots of similarities,” Jackson said. “You can almost go to any AAU event and pick out the guys that Jon Scheyer will love, just like K did before him. You know the type: a 6-8 to 6-10 guy who can pass, handle and shoot. The ones that are a matchup nightmare. I think Scheyer is really looking for defensive versatility as Duke hasn’t had the best buy-in on that side of things over the last ten years.”
It will undoubtedly be interesting to watch as Scheyer’s focus and philosophy take shape over the next several classes. There’s no doubt Scheyer is leaning on a lot of what he knows right now — which is the approach he has followed under Krzyzewski since his arrival in Durham as an assistant coach.
The evolution of his process will continue over time as we see his style develop. Scheyer will always have Krzyzewski’s core values and approach to recruiting as his foundation, but how it changes over time will be what defines him in that regard.
And it some ways, we might already be seeing the evolution. The reasoning behind Scheyer’s method for the 2023 class is a topic for debate. Did he move quickly and aggressively to lock up the 2023 class in order to strengthen a foundation for his first few seasons? Or is this a glimpse into his recruiting style going forward?
These are probably questions we won’t have answers to for quite some time. But it’s fun to speculate.
“I just think Duke identifies their guys early and works to close them pretty quickly,” Jackson said. “The only thing that it hurts them with is the late bloomers. But once they know that a guy is elite and fits their scheme, they’re on them.”
The approach does bring back memories of recruiting long before the one-and-done era took shape.
Duke, under Krzyzewski, has always identified their targets early and pursued them exclusively. Scheyer did that as well with the 2023 class — only he locked them up long before their senior year begins. Whether that is a trend Duke fans should grow accustomed to or not, it is very different than Krzyzewski’s approach in the recent past.
You have to go all the way back to Krzyzewski’s 2010 class before you find a group that featured more than one prospect to commit during his junior season.
That class saw three of the four commitments offer pledges during their junior year of high school. Those three? Andre Dawkins, Josh Hairston and Tyler Thornton. Kyrie Irving was the fourth commit in the class, and he offered his in October of his senior year.
Duke had just seven total players commit during their junior year of high school between the classes of 2011 and 2022. Marvin Bagley, who reclassified the summer prior to his senior year to enroll at Duke early is not included in that number.
The Blue Devils’ classes of 2002, 2005 and 2006 also had multiple juniors commit with none having more than three in a single class.
Tracking commitment dates gets a little more difficult as you go back in time, but the point is clear: What Scheyer has accomplished with the class of 2023 is something Duke fans have not seen in a long, long time.
Will Scheyer continue this method to his recruiting process, or will this be an isolated event in time? Certainly not every class will be the same in how quickly or late players commit, but whether Scheyer seeks to secure players early or not will be worth watching.
It could be our first look at Scheyer as an individual with his own process and not simply an extension of Krzyzewski.