March Madness: Jon Scheyer Built a Juggernaut in Duke’s Post

WASHINGTON — If Duke wins the national championship this season, it may not be enough to simply hoist a sixth banner into the rafters at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Somewhere, some place on campus should be Cameron Boozer’s jersey from Friday night’s Sweet 16 victory over St. John’s, an 80–75 classic that won’t soon be forgotten by the Blue Devils for myriad reasons.

Chief among them can be the ripped “K” on the front of his uniform, symbolic of both the battle they went through against the hard and physical Big East champs as much as it is emblematic of this new era of basketball at a program which said goodbye to its scion of four generations and barely skipped a beat.

No (Coach) K, no problem for the Blue Devils.

Bit of a rip in Cameron Boozer's jersey pic.twitter.com/CupgYCoYWM
— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) March 28, 2026

For all the program’s investments—both literally in the case of their roster and figuratively with few expenses spared in Durham, N.C.—it remains impressive that one of the elite basketball factories has just kept on rolling as if nothing seismic actually happened four seasons ago when Mike Krzyzewski stepped away from his spot on the sideline. That kind of change, from behind the scenes to the X’s and O’s on the court, can be crippling to most programs.

If you need just one example, look across town at North Carolina as it is in the midst of a search for the guy after the guy after the guy. Thanks to now-veteran coach Jon Scheyer though, the Blue Devils seem well on their way to remaining a regular in the later stages of March Madness—much to the rest of the nation’s chagrin.

Friday night at Capital One Arena was the latest example that Duke remains Duke, with Scheyer calmly circulating around the coaching box calling out plays and standing as a notable contrast to Rick Pitino, a Hall of Famer in every aspect from the expensive suit he was sporting down to willing his team to a 10-point lead over the No. 1 overall seed and threatening a very early exit for a group which has been pegged to cut down the nets next week in Indianapolis for more than a month now.

Scheyer was just 5 when Pitino was on the losing end—34 years ago Saturday, no less—of one of the most memorable tourney games ever against Duke. Yet it was the youngster with title rings as a player and an assistant who was pushing all the right buttons down the stretch. Calling timeouts to rally his team when they were getting knocked down amid several scoreless stretches and dialing up some impressive offensive sets as the Blue Devils hit 14 of their final 18 shots.

“All I’ve been talking about with our guys is what you control in the tournament. There’s so many other factors or things that can go into your mind, and I just try to recenter them and refocus on what we control,” Scheyer said. “We talked before the game, man, if you get a lead, it’s going to come back against these guys. You’ve got to be strong with the ball. If you get behind or they go on a run, which they’re going to go on a run, you have to rebound. So just keep trying to bring them back to what we control.”

Part of that control also had to do with bringing back injured point guard Caleb Foster. The junior committed to the program when he was 16 and was one of Scheyer’s key recruiting wins to keep around amid the announced transition from Krzyzewski.

Foster was also critical for Duke this season as it navigated a remarkably tough schedule and emerged with just two losses by a combined four points. He was not only their floor general, but also a key emotional leader as one of the few upperclassmen tasked with guiding five-star freshmen like Boozer.

But Foster suffered a fracture to his foot in the regular-season finale against North Carolina, and his status was in doubt for much of the tournament.

Until, that is, he checked in with just over 14 minutes left in the first half. He promptly provided a nifty alley-oop to the other injured Blue Devil coming back from a foot injury in Patrick Ngongba II and proceeded to look as though his absence didn’t cause him to miss a step.

Caleb Foster is back and lobbing it up 🔥#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/MSe23GsJFI
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 27, 2026

“I’ve been driving fast on a scooter for about two weeks every day, just trying to be present and then just a lot of recovery, going early mornings, late nights,” said Foster, who took it to the postgame news conference and limped around with an ice bag wrapped around his foot. “Since I was a kid, I watched Duke winning national championships, and I always dreamed of being a part of it. [I did] whatever I could do to provide a boost to these guys to help us come out with a win.”

“Still a little stunned with what happened, to be honest with you guys, because what [Foster] did, to be honest, he had no business playing tonight. Ninety-nine percent of guys do not come back to play under the circumstances of what’s happened to him,” said Scheyer, tapping Foster’s chest and later getting emotional. “It was incredible the way he willed us. There’s no analytics. There’s no stats that can measure how big this dude’s heart is for what he did.”

Duke was hoping to get eight minutes out of Foster. He wound up playing 10 more than that and finished with 11 points, three rebounds and two assists. Critically, he didn’t look rusty at all either and at one point attacked the rim to score three consecutive trips down the floor to pull the Blue Devils within six after St. John’s was threatening to blow things open with a raucous crowd on hand delighted with every time the two teams traded blows in a heavyweight fight that lived up to the billing.

“His commitment to Duke, his commitment to me and this program has been unmatched. Then for today, most guys wouldn’t come back, just that’s the reality. There’s no blame. This decision had to come from him, and I want to support him in that decision,” Scheyer said. “And what he did, it was a surreal thing to coach. I really felt like he was going to will us to victory.”

“We played with some adversity all year. Having two guys down in the ACC tournament, played some really good teams, too,” Boozer said. “We find a way to win … we’ve got some dogs on this team.”

While Foster is undoubtedly one of them, Boozer certainly is too, given that he’ll likely be named the national player of the year next week. He finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds, helping to take over during the stretch run much as he has at every turn this year. So, too, is forward Isaiah Evans, who was the only Blue Devil to hit more than a single shot behind the arc and notched a game-high 25 points.

“I never look at offense as a reason you lose. Obviously they weren’t going to give us a three. I always look at defense, and we couldn’t guard them to the basket, and that’s the reason we lost the game,” said Pitino, having remarkably lost for just the second time in his career in this round of the tournament. “Duke has come back many times. They’re a great basketball team. We could not defend them. That’s why up 10 did not last. That’s why we couldn’t defend them.”

Much of that can be ascribed to the players thriving under Scheyer’s leadership. The Blue Devils have won 35 games in back-to-back seasons with him in charge and are going to the Elite Eight for a third year running—something that Krzyzewski last did from 1988 to ’92.

What has been all the more notable is that Scheyer continues to push the envelope on what he’s trying to do on the court, evolving far quicker between the lines than his old boss ever seemed to. After last year’s team collapsed down the stretch in the Final Four loss to Houston, Scheyer made it a point to refocus on how his team executes in those clutch situations and incorporated even more input from his assistants who are, at the ripe old age of 38, now giving him a coaching tree too as they depart for head coaching gigs elsewhere.

“He learns just like the rest of us, he grows just like the rest of us,” Evans said of Scheyer. “He’s definitely one of the best coaches I’ve ever played for as far as knowing the game, knowing how to get guys shots. I feel like he’s just grown along with us.”

Duke coach Jon Scheyer reacts during a game. — Duke coach Jon Scheyer has navigated taking over the Blue Devils program nearly flawlessly. | Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Indeed, last season’s ending in San Antonio aside, Scheyer has barely put a wrong foot forward since taking over. He’s navigated the arrival of NIL and one-time transfers that have stressed every coach with relative ease and the number of five-stars still committing to the program indicate that the current run the Blue Devils are on isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

“He was so well-prepared when we interviewed him for the job, he really did his homework. We spent a lot of time planning succession and knew what good succession looked like. [Jon] executed it brilliantly, it’s been fun to watch,” Duke athletic director Nina King says. “He’s intense, passionate and just wants to continuously, personally, grow. I think we’ve been watching it play out the last four years for sure.”

And for many more to come, ideally.

In the postgame locker room, Boozer told Sports Illustrated he’ll don a backup jersey for Sunday’s contest against UConn, 40 minutes away from reaching a Final Four that is the goal of everyone on a team more than capable of winning their next three games.

He’ll be keeping the torn jersey though, which was already sequestered away by the equipment staff long before the team was ushered out to the buses.

Depending on how the rest of Duke’s season plays out with Scheyer guiding the way, perhaps it might make a great framed addition in the head coach’s office back in Durham.

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