Despite a recent sour taste in the Duke basketball program's mouth after a brutal 82-81 loss to No. 15 Texas Tech at Madison Square Garden, head coach Jon Scheyer still has so much to be proud of through his three years and some leading the Blue Devils. Scheyer recently became the fastest coach in ACC history to reach 100 career wins, has brought his team to an Elite 8 and a Final Four, and became the first coach in ACC history to win two conference tournament titles in his first three years at the helm.
However, coaching a storied program like Duke isn't easy. Consistent success on a national scale isn't just celebrated, it's the standard. Scheyer dealt with potentially the most challenging success task in college basketball history, inheriting the Duke program from the greatest coach in the sport's history, Mike Krzyzewski. Despite delivering in every possible way for the Blue Devils, Scheyer still deals with constant adversity running a program like Duke.
Jon Scheyer harps on 'uncertainty' he deals with each year as head coach of Duke basketball
Scheyer isn't just one of the best coaches in the nation, but one of the best recruiters as well. He and the rest of his staff secured the No. 1 overall recruiting class in 2024 and 2025, and are well on their way to doing so in 2026. However, with elite young talent dominating the program each year, comes consistent roster turnover.
The Blue Devils lost their entire 2024-25 starting five to the NBA Draft, and a similar result is likely to follow after the 2025-26 campaign with the immense amount of young talent on the roster.
On this week's edition of The Brotherhood Podcast, Scheyer and assistant Chris Carrawell joined the show, and Scheyer spoke about the constant uncertainty he faces with the Duke program.
"So, I think that's by far the most challenging thing: is preparing to have the best team you possibly can have each year while facing great uncertainty, especially for us because we have a lot guys that have opportunities of going to the NBA right away — which is great, but that makes it difficult to plan," Scheyer said.
Scheyer has been a home run hire for the Blue Devils as the successor to Coach K, but it's always interesting to see his perspective on the struggles as the head coach of one of the most storied programs in the history of the sport.