The Duke basketball team is unfamiliar being at the Final Four. The only player on its roster that has experience of what is going to happen in the next eight days is Mason Gillis, who lost in the National Championship last season with Purdue.
However, its head coach knows a thing or two about advancing this far in the NCAA Tournament.
Jon Scheyer has now completed the trilogy of punching his ticket to the Final Four as a player, assistant coach, and now head coach.
He became the third person ever in NCAA Tournament history to play and coach in the Final Four with his alma mater, joining Dick Harp (Kansas) and Hubert Davis (North Carolina), after Duke’s 85-65 victory over Alabama on Saturday night.
Scheyer etched his name on a handful of other impressive lists with the achievement, becoming the eighth person to ever be at the Final Four as a player and head coach with Vic Bubas, Billy Donovan, Bob Knight, Bones McKinney, Dean Smith, Harp, and Davis.
Five of those names have now done it with an ACC school.
“San Antonio sounds great,” Scheyer said on Saturday night. “Couldn't be more excited and happy for these guys.”
It’ll be the first Final Four that Duke arrives at without Mike Krzyzewski as its head coach since 1978 but he’s still the visionary behind the current success of the program.
“I don't know how many coaches genuinely want to see the program succeed when they leave,” Scheyer added. “And for me, I've always wanted to make him proud.”
“I want his legacy to be how our program continues to be right there as a top program, and that's something Coach K and I have talked a lot about. So obviously there's a responsibility you feel and a pride.”
No. 1 Duke will play No. 1 Houston on Saturday night in San Antonio.
“I just couldn't be more proud and thankful for having a group that's believed in me, us, the support from our administration, just down the line, has been incredible. I'm really proud of the people that have believed in me and us to get to a Final Four.”