‘Coach K’ has said goodbye. The legendary trainer Duke, with a very recognizable step also as coach of the United States in the recovery stage that gave them three Olympic gold medals in 2008, 2012 and 2016, is leaving. This 2021/22 season has been Mike Krzyzewski’s last active one. To the 75 years the stage has been completed NCAA of one of the most beloved and respected coaches of university basketball in the country and the exit has been through the back door. Cruel fate would have it that North Carolina, with whom Duke maintains a historic rivalry, embitter their last home game at Cameron Indoor Stadium and that, a few months later and in the first matchup between the two institutions in a Final Four, the Tar Heels win again and consequently send good old Mike to retirement. The history of this coach stands at five championships, the same number of decades in which he has trained in the first university division. Forged in the United States Military Academy, that five years gave way to 42 years at the head of the Blue Devils. Now Duke is left stranded, but Mike’s successor has been on the ship for a while.
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A technician focused on the bench for 8 years and who is only 34 years old will be the one to replace him at the head of one of the NCAA transatlantic. This is Jon Scheyer. After studying and playing at Duke between 2006 and 2010, the 6-foot-6 outside combo had a short professional playing career before fully focusing on his future as a coach.
Scheyer tried out in the NBA development league with Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the group that today is affiliated with the Rockets in this competition. He then jumped to Israel to join the best team in the country, the Maccabi from Tel Aviv. Finally, he landed in Las Palmas to play in the Gran Canaria, where his short-lived career on the slopes ended. In each of these three stages he was only one year. In the island team he was trained by Pedro Martínez and shared a locker room with compatriots such as Ryan Toolson or Spencer Nelson, players still active in that league such as Eulis Báez, Tomás Bellas or Walter Tavares, who continue in basketball at other levels such as Óscar Alvarado, Javi Beiran or Xavi Rey… In 30 games with Granca he averaged 5.6 points.
A man who, out of curiosity, left Duke as a player winning the 2010 title and returned as an assistant coach doing the same in 2015. Scheyer has worked his way up the bench, moving from assistant coach to principal assistant in 2018 and receiving the alternative, a movement promoted by Krzyzewski himself, before starting this campaign now over.