Duke basketball: Jon Scheyer on cusp of breaking 80-year record

Duke basketball head coach Jon Scheyer is on the cusp of breaking an 80-year record. 

There have been many coaching records set inside the Duke basketball program under the reign of Mike Krzyzewski, but Jon Scheyer is on the verge of breaking his own record during his first year with the Blue Devils.

Duke secured victory No. 20 on the season after it defeated Louisville, 79-62, on Monday night and moved its head coach one victory closer to reaching a feat Coach K didn’t even accomplish.

Scheyer tied former Blue Devil head coaches Harold Bradley (1950-51) and Gerry Gerard (1942-43) for the most victories by a first-year Duke head coach.

Bradley posted a 20–13 record during his first season in Durham while finishing T-4th in the then Southern Conference and was able to register four years of at least 20 wins before leaving to become the head coach at Texas.

Gerard was 20-6 in his first year at Duke, winning the Southern Conference, but only had one other season of 20 victories in his eight campaigns with the Blue Devils.

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Mike Krzyzewski did not win 20 games until his fourth season at Duke but then rattled off 11 straight seasons of reaching that plateau and had 36 years of at least 20 victories since 1983-84.

Duke basketball head coach has chance to shatter record

Jon Scheyer will have the chance to become the winningest first-year head coach at Duke with a victory on Saturday night as the Blue Devils host Virginia Tech and three games remain in the regular season.

Presumably, Duke will win at least one more game before heading to the ACC Tournament where is remains unclear whether the Blue Devils will receive a single bye or a double bye.

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A single bye would make the path to a ACC Championship much more difficult for the Blue Devils, needing to win four games in four days, as opposed to a double bye path which would only require three games in as many days.

Regardless, Jon Scheyer has a chance to shatter the wins record for a first-year head coach at Duke and leave a tall task for whoever will follow him in Durham.