For as long as Jon Scheyer has been involved with the Duke basketball program and watching legendary head coach Mike Krzyzewski you would imagine he picked up on a few tricks to motivate his team and players.
And while Scheyer has been determined to make the Blue Devils his own after following the legend on the sidelines, he used one of Coach K’s famous tricks to snap Cameron Boozer back into an attacking mindset during the team’s season opener against Texas.
Boozer, after putting together two incredible performances during Duke’s exhibition games, struggled during the first half against the Longhorns, missing all seven of his shots and entered the locker room scoreless with the Blue Devils trailing by a point.
Then, Scheyer let him have it.
“Scheyer challenged me at halftime and said I played soft, which was true,” Boozer explained during his post-game press conference. “Second half, I changed my mentality.”
Boozer posted 15 points and 10 rebounds after halftime as Duke outscored Texas by 16 points, winning 75-60.
The situation was reminiscent to when Krzyzewski had similar words at halftime for Jayson Tatum when Duke was playing Virginia on the road. Tatum, who had seven points at halftime, got lit into by Coach K after he called him a “soft-*** St. Louis kid.”
It motivated Tatum to score 21 points in the second half and help Duke pick up a critical road win against the Cavaliers.
“He knew the buttons to push because the whole second half I was hot,” Tatum recalled of his experience.
Duke is hoping that Cameron Boozer can have a similar career trajectory as Jayson Tatum, who led the Blue Devils to an ACC Tournament Championship and was the No. 3 selection in the NBA Draft.
Boozer is projected to be a Top-3 choice in June’s draft but he remains focused on the challenges that await him in Durham.
No. 6 Duke (1-0) returns to the court on Saturday afternoon (1:30 p.m. ET, The CW) against Western Carolina (0-1) for its first regular season game inside Cameron Indoor Stadium this season.