Duke basketball head coach Jon Scheyer on first loss: 'It hurts'
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Ill-timed careless turnovers and poor outside shooting (3-for-21 from deep) plagued the young Duke basketball team in what was otherwise an encouraging performance from the No. 7 Blue Devils (2-1, 0-0 ACC) in their 69-64 loss to No. 6 Kansas (3-0, 0-0 Big 12) at the Champions Classic in Indianapolis on Tuesday night.
"It hurts," first-year Duke basketball head coach Jon Scheyer noted during the squad's postgame press conference following his first defeat as a head coach. "That's how it should feel."
The turnovers, 18 in all, appeared to stem from a lack of crisp ball movement, evident in the mere eight assists in Duke's box score. Compare that to the 21 dimes that the Jayhawks dished out on the night, forcing the Blue Devils to chase them around and exhaust a more-than-ideal amount of energy on defense.
"I thought they made us work harder on defense than we made them work," the 35-year-old Scheyer summarized.
Scheyer's bunch, especially the freshmen, responded to whatever he told them in the locker room when they trailed 33-29 at halftime. So that's a positive sign for the long run.
After the break, the rookies in the starting lineup (Tyrese Proctor, Mark Mitchell, Kyle Filipowski) and Dereck Lively II off the bench finally looked comfortable in unison under the bright lights. They found their rhythm, accounting for the Blue Devils' first 22 points of the second half to give Duke a 51-47 edge at the under-12 timeout.
However, down the stretch, they and their captain, junior point guard Jeremy Roach, made too many mistakes on both ends of the floor to adequately counter the calm-under-pressure firepower of the defending national champs.
Roach kept the Blue Devils afloat in the first half, with 11 of his 16 points coming before the break. But across the last 90 seconds of the game, he committed a costly charging foul and bricked the front end of a one-and-one as Kansas seized control. He credited the Jayhawks' defense and consistent efforts when it mattered most.
"We knew they were a great defensive team," Roach explained. "They ran at the ball a lot...We knew that was a factor coming in. But we just want to be stronger with the ball. They got their hands on a couple of them. We turned the ball over, just kind of careless with the ball...[They] just did what they needed to do to get the win."
Although a first loss equals an extra sting, Jon Scheyer sounded optimistic that the experience was healthy for the Blue Devils in learning from mistakes and, moving forward, understanding what it takes to compete on a big stage against a top-caliber opponent.
"They know we can be a lot better," Scheyer said about his players.
Duke's next game is back in the friendly confines of Cameron Indoor Stadium when the Blue Devils host Delaware at 7 p.m. ET Friday.
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