Duke basketball: Jon Scheyer adds final piece to coaching staff

The Duke basketball program has finally added an assistant coach to its staff. 

Thursday morning provided the final piece to the Duke basketball coaching staff as Jon Scheyer has opted to hire Emanuel Dildy from the Oklahoma Sooners.

Brendan Marks of The Athletic first reported the hire.

Duke had one vacancy remaining on the staff after the NCAA passed a new rule on July 1 that allowed men’s college basketball programs to add another assistant coaching position.

Dildy, 42, replaces Amile Jefferson on the Blue Devil bench, who left for an assistant coaching job with the Boston Celtics earlier this offseason.

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Despite not playing or previously coaching with Duke, there are some Blue Devil ties to Emanuel Dildy after he joined the Sooners following a stint at Northwestern on Chris Collins’ staff.

Dildy has been linked to Oklahoma head coach Porter Moser for the majority of his career after he spent four seasons (2013-16) with the up-and-coming coach at Loyola Chicago.

He has also worked at Eastern Illinois, Missouri, and Valparaiso.

Moser promoted Dildy to an associated head coach this offseason but the offer from Jon Scheyer and Duke to become an assistant coach was too great to pass up.

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Emanuel Dildy is widely known as one of the best recruiters in college basketball as he helped Northwestern secure its highest ranked recruiting class in 2021 and helped put together the roster at Loyola Chicago that appeared in multiple NCAA Tournaments and a Final Four.

The Duke coaching staff has already proven to be one of the best recruiters in the country, compiling recruiting classes ranked in the Top-2 in the country since the departure of Mike Krzyzewski.

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Duke has not officially announced the hire but Dildy becomes the third person hired by Jon Scheyer since he became the head coach of the Blue Devils not to have any prior relationship to ‘The Brotherhood’.

Jai Lucas (Kentucky) and Rachel Baker (Nike) were hired last season by Scheyer.

Duke promoted Jai Lucas to an associate head coach this offseason while also hiring William Avery back to the program to become an assistant coach.